Abstract
The aim of this article is focused on the design of an obstacle detection system for assisting visually impaired people. A dense disparity map is computed from the images of a stereo camera carried by the user. By using the dense disparity map, potential obstacles can be detected in 3D in indoor and outdoor scenarios. A ground plane estimation algorithm based on RANSAC plus filtering techniques allows the robust detection of the ground in every frame. A polar grid representation is proposed to account for the potential obstacles in the scene. The design is completed with acoustic feedback to assist visually impaired users while approaching obstacles. Beep sounds with different frequencies and repetitions inform the user about the presence of obstacles. Audio bone conducting technology is employed to play these sounds without interrupting the visually impaired user from hearing other important sounds from its local environment. A user study participated by four visually impaired volunteers supports the proposed system.
Highlights
Autonomous navigation is of extreme importance for those who suffer from visual impairment problems
The presented vision-based aid system for the visually impaired consists of a stereo camera connected through a Firewire cable to a small laptop for recording and processing the images
The information is more useful for a visually impaired person. They can increase their autonomy especially in outdoor environments where there are a lot of obstacles wandering around the visually impaired person
Summary
Autonomous navigation is of extreme importance for those who suffer from visual impairment problems. Visually impaired people depend on other factors or other people to perform typical daily activities. Within this context, a system that can provide robust and accurate obstacle detection in urban environments, like city or indoors, is much more than desirable. A major limitation of these systems is the usual distrust of visually impaired community towards the new technologies. This work proposes a user study with visually impaired people in order to obtain relevant feedback information about the system. The proposed obstacle detection algorithm can be integrated into more advanced vision-based localization systems for the visually impaired [1,2]
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