Development of Self Speaking Body Weight Scale for Visually Impaired People in Tanzania

Abstract

Speaking weight scale is an important low vision health aid that measures and announces the measured weight. It is valuable in numerous applications such as Bathroom scale, Kitchen scale, and more. Different talking scales have been developed for the blind community. Many talking scales have language options for English, German, French, or Spanish. However, only limited work exists for Self speaking visually impaired community in EAC given the fact that no talking scale can announce weight in Self which is the common language in EAC. Therefore, this project aims to develop a Self-speaking weighing machine to assist visually impaired people in Tanzania. The developed device is divided into two major parts. On the front end of the design, sensors are used to capture weight parameters. The captured values are mapped onto a sequence of voice patterns. The back-end consists of transferring a sequence of voice patterns to a loudspeaker whereby the voice patterns are stored on an SD card. Finally, the developed device has been evaluated on several objects with known weights. The results show that the developed device accurately measures weight, displays weight, and announces it in the Self language. However, blind people still need assistance from sighted persons to be directed to the scale’s platform. The developed device has great potential as a low vision health aid for Self speakers. Moreover, the features of this device can be further improved by integrating iBeacon technology to increase the autonomy of blind people to use the scale and navigate to the device’s location safely.