Abstract
This study seeks to demonstrate that a navigation system using stereophonic sound technology is effective in supporting visually impaired people in public spaces. In the proposed method, stereophonic sound is produced by a pair of parametric speakers for a person who comes to a specific position, detected by an RGB-D sensor. The sound is a stereophonic earcon representing the target facility. The recipient can intuitively understand the direction of the target facility. The sound is not audible for anyone except for the person being supported and is not noisy. This system is constructed in a shopping mall, and an experiment is conducted, in which the proposed system and guidance by a tactile map lead to a designated facility. As a result, it is confirmed, that the execution time of the proposed method is reduced. It is also confirmed that the proposed method shows higher performance in terms of the average time required to grasp the direction than the tactile map approach. In the actual environment where this system is supposed to be used, the correct answer rate is over 80%. These results suggest that the proposed method can replace the conventional tactile map as a guidance system.
Highlights
As of October 2017, it has been estimated that 130 million people suffer from visual impairment globally, and this number is expected to rise to more than 550 million by 2050 owing to the increasing prevalence of disabilities in the growing older population arising from increased lifespan [1].Despite the large number of people affected by visual impairments, visually impaired people still face various obstacles in daily life, such as lack of accessibility to information [2]
This study sought to demonstrate that a navigation system using stereophonic sound technology is effective for the support of the visual impaired in a noisy environment
Pinpoint presentation of stereophonic sound consists of a pair of stereo parametric speakers, and by delivering stereophonic sound only to the user, it is possible to present a sound image centered on the user’s position regardless of the position of the speaker
Summary
As of October 2017, it has been estimated that 130 million people suffer from visual impairment globally, and this number is expected to rise to more than 550 million by 2050 owing to the increasing prevalence of disabilities in the growing older population arising from increased lifespan [1].Despite the large number of people affected by visual impairments, visually impaired people still face various obstacles in daily life, such as lack of accessibility to information [2]. Information about many architectural environments and traffic is not accessible to the visually impaired, making it difficult for them to use various facilities in public spaces and in particular creating problems when using public transportation. This greatly restricts the movement of the visually impaired, so that they often require assistance with going out. The visually impaired need a system that can smoothly transmit information about the map of their surroundings. Braille, speakers, and braille block were used to provide information to the visually impaired, but these methods have several disadvantages when used as a means of presenting the surrounding map information. Braille usage is limited by the fact that only less than
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