Stickey | Devpost

Inspiration

As people who’ve worked and volunteered at senior homes, we saw how often falls happen, and how helpless the moments after can be. People don’t always get up, and sometimes, help doesn’t come soon enough. But it’s not just older adults, it’s all of us. Whether it’s that puddle we didn’t see or that hidden patch of ice, one slip can change everything. That’s when we thought: what if your walking stick could see, think, and act faster than you could?

Every second, someone falls, that’s over 37 million people every year, and most don’t get help fast enough (CDC). After volunteering at senior homes, we saw it up close: people slip, fall, and sometimes can’t even call for help. But honestly, it’s not just them. It’s all of us. You’ve slipped on ice, tripped on stairs, or stepped in that puddle you swore wasn’t there five seconds ago. Falling is universal — we just decided to fight back.

That’s when we thought: what if your walking stick could see, think, and act faster than you could?

What it does

Stickey is a smart, AI-powered cane that detects danger before it becomes disaster.

Combines AI, sensors, and smart design to detect danger, monitor movement, and respond to emergencies
Ultrasonic sensors identify obstacles, stairs, and elevation changes
Weather sensors detect ice, puddles, and unsafe surfaces
Accelerometer monitors movement and triggers fall alerts when abnormal motion is detected
AI voice guidance communicates in real time, warning and guiding users through obstacles
Automatic SOS alerts sent via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, with a manual panic button for emergencies
18-hour battery life for all-day use

It’s not just mobility, it’s protection, awareness, and connection in your hand.

How we built it

Our build uses the Adafruit QT Py S3, a microcontroller with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth BLE. We coded it in C++ using the Arduino IDE, integrating ultrasonic, tilt, ice, and temperature sensors for full hazard detection. The fall-detection algorithm triggers when acceleration exceeds a_threshold = 1.5g

Because if gravity’s acting up, we act faster.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges we faced was getting the breadboard and chips to work correctly. Nothing connected the way it should, circuits were unstable, and every fix created new issues. We spent hours testing components, tracing faulty connections, and learning how sensitive the setup was to small wiring mistakes. At the same time, our 3D prints kept failing even though the design was solid layers shifted, supports broke, and prints wouldn’t stick to the bed. Each failure taught us to troubleshoot carefully, refine our process, and understand how design translates into real-world hardware. Through it all, we learned patience, precision, and the value of systematic problem-solving.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of getting both the chip’s architecture and the IC sensor system fully functional after hours of adjusting voltage levels, fixing wiring errors, and making sure every connection on the breadboard was perfectly aligned. It wasn’t easy, there were moments when nothing seemed to work and every fix led to another issue, but through trial, teamwork, and persistence, we finally got the system stable and responsive. The process taught us how to carefully troubleshoot circuits, manage voltage consistency, and understand how small details can completely change an outcome. Seeing everything finally light up and run smoothly was a moment of pure satisfaction and proof that patience and precision always pay off

What we learned

This project pushed us to really understand the breadboard from the ground up. None of us were familiar with how everything connected, so getting the sensors, resistors, and voltage levels to cooperate was a real challenge at first. We had to learn how each piece played a role, how a misplaced resistor could throw off readings, or how an incorrect voltage could stop the sensor entirely. Bit by bit, we figured out how to route the wiring properly, stabilize the power flow, and read accurate outputs from the sensors. What started as total confusion slowly became clarity. By the end, we weren’t just following tutorials, we actually understood why each connection mattered.

What's next for Stickey

Next for Stickey, we want to add smarter sensing tools that make the stick more aware of the user’s surroundings, especially in situations that are harder to detect with distance sensors alone. One idea is to add photoresistors or digital ambient light sensors so Stickey can tell when the user is walking into a dark hallway, stairwell, or outdoor area at night and warn them with a specific vibration pattern or audio cue. We can also explore color or RGB LEDs that change based on environment or battery level, temperature or humidity sensors to alert users about extreme weather conditions, and an accelerometer or gyroscope to detect sudden drops, impacts, or if the stick is not being held correctly.

Longer term, we could experiment with a small speaker module for spoken alerts and a Bluetooth connection so data from the stick can sync to a phone app for settings and usage stats. All of these additions would move Stickey from simply avoiding obstacles to becoming a more complete environmental awareness tool for the user.