Methodologies and evaluation of electronic travel aids for the visually impaired people: a review

Abstract

Technological advancements have widely contributed to navigation aids. However, their large-scale adaptation for navigation solutions for visually impaired people haven’t been realized yet. Less participation of the visually impaired subject produces a designer-oriented navigation system which overshadows consumer necessity. The outcome results in trust and safety issues, hindering the navigation aids from really contribute to the safety of the targeted end user. This study categorizes electronic travel aids (ETAs) based on experimental evaluations, highlights the designer-centred development of navigation aids with insufficient participation of the visual impaired community. First the research breaks down the methodologies to achieve navigation, followed by categorization of the test and experimentation done to evaluate the systems and ranks it by maturity order. From 70 selected research articles, 51.4% accounts for simulation evaluation, 24.3% involve blindfolded-sighted humans, 22.9% involve visually impaired people and only 1.4% makes it into production and commercialization. Our systematic review offers a bird’s eye view on ETA development and evaluation and contributes to construction of navigational aids which really impact the target group of visually impaired people.

Recent trends in computer vision-driven scene understanding for VI/blind users: a systematic mapping

“…In a similar study by Romlay et al [14], the maturity level of various electronic travel aids (ETA) in 70 studies is discussed. However, only one (Guido [15], a smart walker for the blind) of the products mentioned was successful in preproduction unit sales in the USA.…”

Face detection and global positioning system on a walking aid for blind people

“…Face detection and global positioning system on a walking aid for blind people (Abdurrasyid) 1559 Previously, many studies have been carried out with blind people as the subjects, where the visually impaired aids that are studied can be divided into 3 parts, robotic navigation aids, smartphones and wearable attachments [8], previous studies mostly used ultrasonic sensors and image processing, [9]- [11] but looking at the research that has been developed, it still has shortcomings, previous studies did not provide voice information to blind people on how far they are from an obstacle, what if there was a pothole or uneven road, when to avoid, which direction to avoid. A similar study was carried out by Gayathri using ultrasonic PIR sensors and global positioning system (GPS), but this study did not consider obstacles in the form of potholes or uneven roads and no scientific method was used in the research, especially in how the device works [12].…”

Virtual reality as a means to explore assistive technologies for the visually impaired

“…These devices integrate sensing and feedback systems of various natures. Sensing ranges from computer vision technology to scanning devices and microphones [10][11][12][13], while feedback systems span from audio devices to haptic accessories [14 -17]. These sensory substitution systems rely on data acquired from the sensing system to infer the presence of obstacles in the surroundings of the user, who can negotiate obstacles based on the information relayed by the feedback system.…”