Probing stick: Extraction of road surface status using wireless accelerometer sensor

This paper deals with a supporting system for elderly people while walking in the streets. One motivation behind this study is preventing them from unexpected accidents due to ill conditions of the street surface. Since camera devices cannot sense the street surface in the absence of sufficient light, we utilize a mechanical input. We propose an intelligent stick, called Proving Stick, using a 3D accelerometer sensor. Probing Stick consists of a stick with an accelerometer and a wearable computer, both of which are wirelessly connected. It notifies a user of the level of danger at the street surface as an alert. This short paper describes its basic architecture, signal processing, and results of preliminary experiments.