As one of the oldest tools discovered by human, sticks come in different shapes and sizes to serve such purposes as self-defense, hunting, walking, or simply for fun. This smart stick project aims to add sensing and computing capabilities to sticks for a broad range of applications: walking assistance (fall alert), barrier detection (guides for the vision-impaired), location reporting and inquiry (terrain navigation). It also explores new interface techniques for cyber physical system (CPS) designs. Three different types of sticks (quad and simple walking sticks, guide sticks and walkers) will be used as the physical platforms for our study. Mini-gyro and pressure sensors will be used to generate raw data for pedestrian motion sensing. And digital filters will be developed to model and monitor pace states using low power FPGA or microcontrollers. This research will advance knowledge in how to design plug-and-play architectures for CPS building blocks. The broad impacts of this project consist of: creating new technological capabilities on a ubiquitous physical platform; assisting users who rely on sticks to improve their quality of life; providing a meaningful scenario for undergraduate students to explore their design abilities.
