UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR

MALAYSIA ITALY DESIGN INSTITUTE

INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
WBB10202

PROJECT PROPOSAL: VISUAL IMPAIRED

ASSIST (VIA) STAFF

PREPARED FOR:
PN. FARIDAH

PREPARED BY:
PROSTHETICS AUDIO.LTD
 Content

Company introduction 1

Team representative 1

Background project 1

Objective 1

Problem statement 2

Target market 3

Reference 3
Introduction

1.1 Company introduction

PROSTHETICS AUDIO was founded by engineering students of UNIKL MIDI in 2018 as

acoustic peripheral specialist and manufacturer of acoustic sensor. Now, it has
developed into a major developer in ultrasonic and acoustic technology. PROSTHETICS
AUDIO manufacturer place their focus on cooperative partnerships and top-quality,
high-tech hardware and software.

1.2 Team representatives

 MOHAMAD AFIQ BIN SHARIFFUDDIN

 ABDUL MUIZ BIN M NOOR
 A
 A
 A

1.3 Background project

The project was initiated by the group of student who participate and contributing in the
2018 ceremony open fasting with Malaysian Foundation for the blind. The ceremony also
make a competition which required each team to design a system that innovator used
embedded technology. We’re concerned with the number of visually impaired individuals
in the world and decide it was a worthwhile project to create an assistive device for
visually impaired individuals.

1.4 Objective of the project

The aim of this project is to propose a portable device, designed for blind individuals to
help them obtaining around, and assist them with getting around. Unlike most
commercially available assistive devices, this device should provide directions to
locations and alert the user of obstacles in their path.
2.0 Problem statement

2.1 Problem formulation

There are over 413 thousand people in Malaysia who are visually impaired and expected there
will be an increase over 150 million people in 2050 according to research (Dr Azman Abu Bakar,
2017). The lack of visual capabilities has limited these individuals from completely perceiving
their current surroundings which has potential safety concerns and also lowers their quality
of life since they must rely on some sort of aid to get them around. Currently, in order for
visually impaired individuals to get around, they usually rely on walking canes, guide dogs,
and/or personal human aids for assistance. While these walking canes and guide dogs may
allow the individual to get around independently, they each have a common drawback. These
aids lack the intelligence to provide directions to new locations and cannot completely warn
individuals of obstruction objects in their vicinity. A human aid provides this intelligence but
makes the visually impaired individual very dependent on the human aid. A good solution will
be a device that is portable and is able to provide directions to new locations and alert the
user of obstacles in their path when the user is walking with ease of use for them. For the
purpose of this project, we identified the problem defined above to assisting blind individuals
with getting around outdoors. We believe a project like this will create the case for further
investment in creating smarter electronic devices to assist visually impaired individuals with
getting around. By smarter we mean that the device is able to provide directions to not well-
known locations, while ensuring safe navigation. However, the device is not intended to
replace the use of walking canes or guide dogs.
3.0 Target market

Primary market (Potential primary user of the product)

 The product is design specifically for visually impaired (blind) and visually
challenged (greatly reduced vision) individual

Secondary market (other potential users of the product)

 Family member/caretaker of the visually impaired

 Health professional who provide service aiding blind people

References
1. The Malaysian Insider. (2017, October). 413,000 rakyat Malaysia hadapi masalah
penglihatan. Retrieved from
https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/bahasa/s/18277
2. Damei Fu, Zhihong Zhao. (2016) Moving object tracking method based on ultrasonic
automatic detection algorithm. Retrieved from
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7483468/