Blind Guide: An Ultrasound Sensor-based Body Area Network for Guiding Blind People

Pereira, António; Nunes, Nelson J.; Vieira, Daniel; Costa, Nuno; Fernandes, Hugo; Barroso, João

doi:10.1016/j.procs.2015.09.285

Cited by 41 publications

(25 citation statements)

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“…Some studies proposing electronic white cane technologies have also conducted an experiment with blindfolded non-visually impaired users. Examples include Perera et al's [39] use of an ultrasound-based body area network with haptic feedback and text to speech. Unfortunately, the reported experiments are sketchy.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are electronic white canes better than traditional canes? A comparative study with blind and blindfolded participants

Santos

Médola

Cinelli

et al. 2020

Univ Access Inf Soc

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Visually impaired individuals often rely on assistive technologies such as white canes for independent navigation. Many electronic enhancements to the traditional white cane have been proposed. However, only a few of these proof-of-concept technologies have been tested with authentic users, as most studies rely on blindfolded non-visually impaired participants or no testing with participants at all. Experiments involving blind users are usually not contrasted with the traditional white cane. This study set out to compare an ultrasound-based electronic cane with a traditional white cane. Moreover, we also compared the performance of a group of visually impaired participants (N = 10) with a group of blindfolded participants without visual impairments (N = 31). The results show that walking speed with the electronic cane is significantly slower compared to the traditional white cane. Moreover, the results show that the performance of the participants without visual impairments is significantly slower than for the visually impaired participants. No significant differences in obstacle detection rates were observed across participant groups and device types for obstacles on the ground, while 79% of the hanging obstacles were detected by the electronic cane. The results of this study thus suggest that electronic canes present only one advantage over the traditional cane, namely in its ability to detect hanging obstacles, at least without prolonged practice. Next, blindfolded participants are insufficient substitutes for blind participants who are expert cane users. The implication of this study is that research into digital white cane enhancements should include blind participants. These participants should be followed over time in longitudinal experiments to document if practice will lead to improvements that surpass the performance achieved with traditional canes.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are electronic white canes better than traditional canes? A comparative study with blind and blindfolded participants

Santos

Médola

Cinelli

et al. 2020

Univ Access Inf Soc

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show abstract

“…After the discussions with the VI persons, we found that for distant orientation, they need to get basic information about important elements of environment in range of 5-20 m. Obstacles that are located at a distance of less than 2 m can easily be detected with the help of a white cane. The similar solutions have been found in the review [22,50,56,57,59,60], where the users are using ultrasonic sensors that are placed on white cane or on a user's belt or jacket, and sensors operates in different directions with a range of up to 5 m. The authors of these solutions argue that such a distance is sufficient for decision making.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Indoor Navigation Systems for Visually Impaired Persons: Mapping the Features of Existing Technologies to User Needs

Plikynas

Žvironas

Budrionis

et al. 2020

Sensors

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Currently, several outdoor navigation and orientation electronic traveling aid (ETA) solutions for visually impaired (VI) people are commercially available or in active development. This paper’s survey of blind experts has shown that after outdoor navigation, the second most important ETA feature for VI persons is indoor navigation and orientation (in public institutions, supermarkets, office buildings, homes, etc.). VI persons need ETA for orientation and navigation in unfamiliar indoor environments with embedded features for the detection and recognition of obstacles (not only on the ground but also at head level) and desired destinations such as rooms, staircases, and elevators. The development of such indoor navigation systems, which do not have Global Positioning System (GPS) locational references, is challenging and requires an overview and evaluation of existing systems with different navigation technologies. This paper presents an evaluation and comparison of state-of-the-art indoor navigation solutions, and the research implications provide a summary of the critical observations, some insights, and directions for further developments. The paper maps VI needs in relation to research and development (R&D) trends using the evaluation criteria deemed most important by blind experts.

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“…This can measure the accurate distance of 0.02-4m. The data output of the sensor is from RXD which is serial ASCII [14]. The ASCII value so returned would be used to activate the appropriate vibrators, and also to synthesize a voice output, so that the user can hear the details of the obstacles.…”

Section: A Jacket Modulementioning

confidence: 99%

Human bodysuit with color sensing for the Visually Impaired

Chisti*,

naik,

naick

et al. 2020

IJITEE

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In this paper, a navigational aid for blind people is developed as a suite with the handwear module, which makes use of ARM LPC 2148 microcontroller board with ultrasonic serial ASCII sensors and tappers for collision avoidance and a provision for primary-colored objects detection. The user is alerted with tapping mechanism and synthetic voice feedback to guide the navigation. The user is also provided with buttons for switching on the Left and Right-hand wear sensors and sensing primary colors. The user can also turn on and off the GPS and GSM modules, which gives the location of the user through a message to any preloaded number for assisting. Thus the proposed handware module helps the blind people to navigate outdoor and can differentiate primary colored objects that helps user in segregating daily household objects, appliance, clothes, etc. The paper also gives an idea of possible additional provisions to the jacket are explored.

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Blind Guide: An Ultrasound Sensor-based Body Area Network for Guiding Blind People

Cited by 41 publications

References 1 publication

Are electronic white canes better than traditional canes? A comparative study with blind and blindfolded participants

Are electronic white canes better than traditional canes? A comparative study with blind and blindfolded participants

Indoor Navigation Systems for Visually Impaired Persons: Mapping the Features of Existing Technologies to User Needs

Human bodysuit with color sensing for the Visually Impaired

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