Ultrasonic electronic system for blind people navigation

Tudor, Denis; Dobrescu, Lidia; Dobrescu, D.

doi:10.1109/ehb.2015.7391545

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Electronic Travel Aids (ETAs), proposed during the last years for assisting blind people, include a wide spectrum of sensors, feedback, and processors. The most common sensors are ultrasonic sensors [1][2][3][4][5], structured light cameras [6][7][8], stereo cameras [9,10], and monocular cameras [11]. Each sensor has some drawbacks that limit the functionality and pervasiveness of the system.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vision‐Based System for Assisting Blind People to Wander Unknown Environments in a Safe Way

2021

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Vision is the principal source of information of the surrounding world. It facilitates our movement and development of everyday activities. In this sense, blind people have great difficulty for moving, especially in unknown environments, which reduces their autonomy and puts them at risk of suffering an accident. Electronic Travel Aids (ETAs) have emerged and provided outstanding navigation assistance for blind people. In this work, we present the methodology followed for implementing a stereo vision-based system that assists blind people to wander unknown environments in a safe way, by sensing the world, segmenting the floor in 3D, fusing local 2D grids considering the camera tracking, creating a global occupancy 2D grid, reacting to close obstacles, and generating vibration patterns with an haptic belt. For segmenting the floor in 3D, we evaluate normal vectors and orientation of the camera obtained from depth and inertial data, respectively. Next, we apply RANSAC for computing efficiently the equation of the supporting plane (floor). The local grids are fused, obtaining a global map with data of free and occupied areas along the whole trajectory. For parallel processing of dense data, we leverage the capacity of the Jetson TX2, achieving high performance, low power consumption, and portability. Finally, we present experimental results obtained with ten (10) participants, in different conditions, with obstacles of different height, hanging obstacles, and dynamic obstacles. These results show high performance and acceptance by the participants, highlighting the easiness to follow instructions and the short period of training.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vision‐Based System for Assisting Blind People to Wander Unknown Environments in a Safe Way

2021

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“…Tudor et al [40] designed an ultrasound-based system with vibration feedback, which could be considered as the closest prototype to the device developed and tested here. The ultrasonic electronic system [40] utilizes two separate ultrasound sensors for near (2 to 40 cm) and far (40 to 180 cm) distance ranges respectively. Tudor et al [40] use simple linear pulse width modulation dependency for both vibration motors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ultrasonic electronic system [40] utilizes two separate ultrasound sensors for near (2 to 40 cm) and far (40 to 180 cm) distance ranges respectively. Tudor et al [40] use simple linear pulse width modulation dependency for both vibration motors. Most of these projects allow to navigate within the distance range of 4 m, but suffer from drawbacks related to cost and complexity and thus accessibility to the world’s population of visually impaired poor people.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-Cost Open Source Ultrasound-Sensing Based Navigational Support for the Visually Impaired

Petsiuk

Pearce

2019

Sensors

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Nineteen million Americans have significant vision loss. Over 70% of these are not employed full-time, and more than a quarter live below the poverty line. Globally, there are 36 million blind people, but less than half use white canes or more costly commercial sensory substitutions. The quality of life for visually impaired people is hampered by the resultant lack of independence. To help alleviate these challenges this study reports on the development of a low-cost, open-source ultrasound-based navigational support system in the form of a wearable bracelet to allow people with the lost vision to navigate, orient themselves in their surroundings and avoid obstacles when moving. The system can be largely made with digitally distributed manufacturing using low-cost 3-D printing/milling. It conveys point-distance information by utilizing the natural active sensing approach and modulates measurements into haptic feedback with various vibration patterns within the four-meter range. It does not require complex calibrations and training, consists of the small number of available and inexpensive components, and can be used as an independent addition to traditional tools. Sighted blindfolded participants successfully demonstrated the device for nine primary everyday navigation and guidance tasks including indoor and outdoor navigation and avoiding collisions with other pedestrians.

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“…A significant number of research papers in the field of detecting objects, have depended on ultrasonic sensors. Tudor et al [44] proposed a wearable belt with two ultrasonic sensors and two vibration motors to direct the visual impaired from obstacles. The authors used Arduino Nano Board with an ATmega328P microcontroller to connect and build their system.…”

Section: Ultrasonic Sensorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

LidSonic V2.0: LiDAR and Deep Learning-based Green Assistive Edge Device to Enhance Mobility for the Visually Impaired

Busaeed¹,

Katib²,

Albeshri³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Over a billion people around the world are disabled, among them, 253 million are visually impaired or blind, and this number is greatly increasing due to ageing, chronic diseases, poor environment, and health. Despite many proposals, the current devices and systems lack maturity and do not completely fulfill user requirements and satisfaction. Increased research activity in this field is required to encourage the development, commercialization, and widespread acceptance of low-cost and affordable assistive technologies for visual impairment and other disabilities. This paper proposes a novel approach using a LiDAR with a servo motor and an ultrasonic sensor to collect data and predict objects using deep learning for environment perception and navigation. We adopted this approach in a pair of smart glasses, called LidSonic V2.0, to enable the identification of obstacles for the visually impaired. The LidSonic system consists of an Arduino Uno edge computing device integrated into the smart glasses and a smartphone app that transmits data via Bluetooth. Arduino gathers data, operates the sensors on smart glasses, detects obstacles using simple data processing, and provides buzzer feedback to visually impaired users. The smartphone application collects data from Arduino, detects and classifies items in the spatial environment, and gives spoken feedback to the user on the detected objects. In comparison to image processing-based glasses, LidSonic uses far less processing time and energy to classify obstacles using simple LiDAR data, according to several integer measurements. We comprehensively describe the proposed system's hardware and software design, construct their prototype implementations, and test them in real-world environments. Using the open platforms, WEKA and TensorFlow, the entire LidSonic system is built with affordable off-the-shelf sensors and a microcontroller board costing less than $80. Essentially, we provide designs of an inexpensive, miniature, green device that can be built into, or mounted on, any pair of glasses or even a wheelchair to help the visually impaired. Our approach affords faster inference and decision-making using relatively low energy with smaller data sizes as well as faster communications for the edge, fog, and cloud computing.

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Ultrasonic electronic system for blind people navigation

Cited by 15 publications

References 1 publication

Vision‐Based System for Assisting Blind People to Wander Unknown Environments in a Safe Way

Vision‐Based System for Assisting Blind People to Wander Unknown Environments in a Safe Way

Low-Cost Open Source Ultrasound-Sensing Based Navigational Support for the Visually Impaired

LidSonic V2.0: LiDAR and Deep Learning-based Green Assistive Edge Device to Enhance Mobility for the Visually Impaired

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