Visual Impaired Assistance for Object and Distance Detection Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Abstract

Vision is a very valuable gift from God; Most aspects of human needs in the body are dominated by vision. Based on data from the World Health Organization (WHO) there are around 180 million people in the world experiencing visual impairment, while the prevalence of blindness in Indonesia reaches 3 million people (1.5% of Indonesia's population), so we designed a system in the form of a prototype that could detect objects around the user and convey data in the form of sound to the user. This research discusses the application of a machine learning model using the Convolutional Neural Network method to detect objects optimally. The objects that have been collected will be trained on machine learning and produce a model to be embedded in the system's main machine, namely the Raspberry PI 4B. The training of the machine learning model was carried out several times by changing the compositions of several layers until a model with optimal accuracy was obtained; however, the size of the resulting model was quite large, so the researchers carried out SSDMobileNetV2 transfer learning to obtain the optimal model. The optimal model was obtained with a model precision of 92% and a model size of 18 MB. Object detection tests carried out under 3 test conditions resulted in an average object detection accuracy of 84.3%, and distance detection tests carried out under 10 conditions resulted in an average distance detection error of 2.1 cm. The results show that the system was accurate and effective.

Keywords

• model
• machine learning
• vision