Multimodal and alternative perception for the visually impaired: a survey

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of navigational assistive technologies with various sensor modalities and alternative perception approaches for visually impaired people. It also examines the input and output of each technology, and provides a comparison between systems. Design/methodology/approach – The contributing authors along with their students thoroughly read and reviewed the referenced papers while under the guidance of domain experts and users evaluating each paper/technology based on a set of metrics adapted from universal and system design. Findings – After analyzing 13 multimodal assistive technologies, the authors found that the most popular sensors are optical, infrared, and ultrasonic. Similarly, the most popular actuators are audio and haptic. Furthermore, most systems use a combination of these sensors and actuators. Some systems are niche, while others strive to be universal. Research limitations/implications – This paper serves as a starting point for further research in benchmarking multimodal assistive technologies for the visually impaired and to eventually cultivate better assistive technologies for all. Social implications – Based on 2012 World Health Organization, there are 39 million blind people. This paper will have an insight of what kind of assistive technologies are available to the visually impaired people, whether in market or research lab. Originality/value – This paper provides a comparison across diverse visual assistive technologies. This is valuable to those who are developing assistive technologies and want to be aware of what is available as well their pros and cons, and the study of human-computer interfaces.