Smart Walking Stick
An assistive cane that listens, locates, and remembers.
The Smart Walking Stick is a white cane with sensing built in: three ultrasonic sensors, a NEO-6M GPS module, an SD-card logger, and a buzzer for feedback.
It is for visually impaired users who already use a cane and want one that can warn them about an obstacle and keep a record of where it has been.
I co-designed it under a hard constraint: a $75 CAD budget per unit. My contributions included the mechanical mounting system. The electronics sit in a 3D-printed PLA enclosure clamped to the cane with a 50 mm aluminum clamp. I sized the enclosure to preserve the cane’s grip balance and to keep the SD card reachable for maintenance, so logs can be pulled without taking the unit apart.
It was a four-month design-course project. We built it, demoed it, and came out with a clear list of what to do differently next time.
