Tactile Feedback Navigation Handle for the Visually Impaired

Abstract

This paper presents a novel tactile navigation system for the blind. The device is portable and cost effective, and will allow visually impaired individuals to navigate through familiar and non-familiar environments without relying on the assistance of a guide. The “Tactile Handle” consists of an array of vibro-tactile actuators positioned to match the finger phalanxes, proximity sensors, and an embedded micro-controller. The handle processes sensor signals and outputs information to the user through variable and synchronized vibrations, which will enhance the sense of orientation and distance for the user. The prototype has an ergonomic design, is lightweight, compact, and adjustable to different hand sizes. This paper describes the concept of its use as a navigation system for the visually impaired and the preliminary results for the tactile perception of 30 sighted users of different genders and hand sizes.

Wearable Obstacle Avoidance Electronic Travel Aids for Blind: A Survey

“…Bouzit and coworkers from State University of New Jersey developed the tactile handle [16], [17], a device that will help visually impaired people navigate in familiar and nonfamiliar environments without any assistance. The prototype is a compact (5 cm × 5 cm × 20 cm), lightweight, ergonomic, low-power (80 h autonomy) handheld device.…”

Evaluation of RU-Netra ¿ Tactile Feedback Navigation System For The Visually Impaired

“…However, none of these devices are complete set of information about the user's surrounding environment. For visually impaired individuals only auditory or tactile perception can be used as the feedback or output mechanism [12,13]. Many people came up with different systems for tactile perception based feedback.…”

“…The visually impaired has tremendous difficulty planning and performing navigation, for they lack the required information for bypassing obstacles and hazards. They obviously have little information, if any, about landmarks, directions and distances of obstacles around them [12,13].…”

“…The Tactile Handle is made of a 4 x 4 tactile array, where each vibro-tactile actuator matches one finger phalanx. Signals sent to the user are detected as vibrations sensed in specific areas of the hand in contact with the vibro-tactile actuators: four points on each of the index, middle, ring, and little fingers ( Figure 1) [12,13]. [12,13] 16 vibro-tactile actuators with different locations on the hand, intensity levels and pulse duration of sensing signal can convey extensive information about the environment.…”

An Electronic Travel Aid based on multi-sensor fusion using extended Kalman filter

“…According to the feedback style to the user, the ETAs can be mainly categorized into three types, including the audio feedback [3] [4], the tactile feedback [5] [6] and the w/o feedback type [7] [8]. All these available ETAs can work as "vision substitution" devices, i.e., they can transform environment information that would normally be relayed through vision into a form that can be conveyed through another sensory modality.…”