Navigation Of Blind People Research Articles

Enhanced Yolov8 with OpenCV for Blind-Friendly Object Detection and Distance Estimation

The development of computer technology and computer vision has had a significant positive impact on the daily lives of blind people, especially in efforts to improve their navigation abilities. This research has the main aim of introducing a superior object detection method, especially in supporting the sustainability and effectiveness of navigation for the blind. The main focus of the research is the use of YOLOv8, the latest version of YOLO, as an object detection method, and distance measurement technology from OpenCV. The main challenge to be addressed involves improving the accuracy and performance of object detection, which is an important key to ensuring safe and effective navigation for blind people. In this context, blind people often face obstacles in their mobility, especially when walking around environments that may be full of obstacles or obstacles. Therefore, better object detection methods become essential to ensure the identification of nearby objects, which may involve obstacles or potential threats, thereby preventing possible accidents or difficulties in daily commuting. Involving YOLOv8 as an object detection method provides the advantage of a high level of accuracy, although with a slight increase in detection duration and GPU power consumption compared to previous versions. The research results show that YOLOv8 provides a low error rate, with an average error percentage of 3.15%, indicating very optimal results. Using a combined performance evaluation approach of YOLOv8 and OpenCV distance measurement metrics, this research not only seeks to improve accuracy but also efficiency in detection time and power consumption. This research makes an important contribution in presenting technological solutions that can help improve mobility and safety for blind people, bringing a real positive impact in facilitating their daily lives.

Obstacle Detection in Infrared Navigation for Blind People and Mobile Robots.

The paper is a continuation of the authors' work intended for infrared navigation for blind people and mobile robots. This concerns the detection of obstacles in the person's or mobile robot's trajectory, in particular, the detection of corners. The temperature distribution of a building's internal wall near a corner has been investigated. Due to geometry, more heat will be transferred by conduction so that inside the building, the temperature on the wall will be decreasing towards a corner. The problem will be investigated theoretically and numerically, and the results are confirmed by experimental measurements. The purpose of this research is to help blind people by equipping them with a small infrared camera that warns them when they are approaching a corner inside a building. The same aim is addressed to mobile robots.

Intelligent Blind-User Navigational Device Utilizing Image Processing

There are many thousands of blind people in the world who frequently require support. Since the white cane has long been known as an essential component of blind people's navigation, efforts have been made to enhance it by adding new sensors. Blind people are relatively comfortable inside their homes because they can pinpoint where things are, but in the outside world, as the objects are in motion, they face difficulties in locating the objects without an assistance. The research put forth strives to develop a sound navigation and range system for blind people. A real-time obstacle identification has been accomplished using ultrasonic sensors. In order to create a safe path for navigation to a destination, image processing in real-time is used for providing the blind person's perception of the size and distance of the obstacle utilizing raspberry pi for object detection. The suggested method makes use of a camera for recording the video sequence of surroundings, which it subsequently processes using a vocal input from a person who is visually impaired. It takes the location data while taking the (GPS) module for outdoor use. The location detail gathered is transported to the cloud.

Improving Navigation for Blind People in the Developing Countries: A UI/UX Perspective

Assistive technology (AT) has made many tasks possible for people with disabilities. Unfortunately, almost no technology is developed centered around the blind people of developing countries when it comes to navigating. This study explored blind people's concerns and determined the type of design and interaction of a navigation application that are more convenient and favored by blind users. Qualitative research was used to study the problems faced by blind people of developing countries while navigating. Blind people of two organizations in Bangladesh participated voluntarily in the research. The data obtained were analyzed using thematic analysis of ATLAS.ti. The data indicated that merely traveling with the white cane was not enough and there were a lot of problems faced when going from one place to another. A preference was shown for voice-assisted devices. The data were used to build two types of accessible prototypes with good UX, but different interactions, design, layout, spoken content and audio descriptions. Later, the usability testing was performed to investigate the effectiveness of the two types of prototypes from the UI/UX perspective. The results indicated that there was a greater preference for a layout with more spacing and buttons closer to the hands. Audio descriptions, spoken content and being able to navigate using the application also instills a sense of independence. The study contributes to a better knowledge of design solutions and interactions that legally blind people prefer, and to the creation of navigation tools/apps for the blind, specifically from the developing countries such as Bangladesh.

Thermal navigation for blind people

Thermal navigation for blind people

Research advances of indoor navigation for blind people: A brief review of technological instrumentation

Blind persons need electronic traveling aid (ETA) solutions for better orientation and navigation in unfamiliar indoor environments, with embedded features for detection and recognition of both obstacles and desired destinations such as rooms, staircases, and elevators. Because the use of GPS for locational references is impractical indoors, the development of such navigation systems is challenging and requires a systematic review and evaluation of different technological approaches. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method, we evaluated and compared current research papers that deal with the prototyping of assistive devices (visual sensory perception substitution with audio and haptic signals) for blind and visually impaired persons. We conducted an instructional assessment of selected indoor navigation prototypes using three main criteria: navigation technologies, sensors, and computer vision approaches. For the latter category, we conducted a separate systematic review, as papers in this research area primarily specialize in software computer vision solutions rather than hardware. The paper provides useful insights for researchers regarding technological instrumentation for the development of ETA solutions for blind and visually impaired (VI) persons in the field of indoor orientation and navigation.

Virtual navigation for blind people: Transferring route knowledge to the real-World

• Blind people can use virtual navigation to quickly learn real-world short routes. • Most users gained comprehensive knowledge of all routes within three sessions. • Virtual navigation allowed users to complete 60-meter real-world routes unassisted. • When receiving in-situ navigation assistance users rely less on prior knowledge. • Some users took advantage of the knowledge acquired virtually to recover from errors. Independent navigation is challenging for blind people, particularly in unfamiliar environments. Navigation assistive technologies try to provide additional support by guiding users or increasing their knowledge of the surroundings, but accurate solutions are still not widely available. Based on this limitation and on the fact that spatial knowledge can also be acquired indirectly (prior to navigation), we developed an interactive virtual navigation app where users can learn unfamiliar routes before physically visiting the environment. Our main research goals are to understand the acquisition of route knowledge through smartphone-based virtual navigation and how it evolves over time; its ability to support independent, unassisted real-world navigation of short routes; and its ability to improve user performance when using an accurate in-situ navigation tool (NavCog). With these goals in mind, we conducted a user study where 14 blind participants virtually learned routes at home for three consecutive days and then physically navigated them, both unassisted and with NavCog. In virtual navigation, we analyzed the evolution of route knowledge and we found that participants were able to quickly learn shorter routes and gradually increase their knowledge in both short and long routes. In the real-world, we found that users were able to take advantage of this knowledge, acquired completely through virtual navigation, to complete unassisted navigation tasks. When using NavCog, users tend to rely on the navigation system and less on their prior knowledge and therefore virtual navigation did not significantly improve users’ performance.

Obstruction Recognition for Visually Challenged Patients

Currently, many researches has been carried to devise the navigation for blind people. Here, we propose an efficient system to aid the visually impaired in their navigation. User will be indicated about the nearing obustruction with closer ambiance. The basic concept behind this system is to detect the nearest hindarence through a stereoscopic sonar system and sends back vibro-tactile feedback to inform the user about its localization through a beep sound provided with voice indication for a differentiation between three sensors imbibed. The proposed system aims in increasing the mobility for visually impaired by offering various sensing abilities. The device is light, portable, but range limited to its own size.

Detection of GNSS Signals Propagation in Urban Canyos Using 3D City Models

This paper presents one of the solutions to the problem of multipath propagation and effects on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals in urban canyons. GNSS signals may reach a receiver not only through Line-of-Sight (LOS) paths, but they are often blocked, reflected or diffracted from tall buildings, leading to unmodelled GNSS errors in position estimation. Therefore in order to detect and mitigate the impact of multipath, a new ray-tracing model for simulation of GNSS signals reception in urban canyons is proposed - based on digital 3D maps information, known positions of GNSS satellites and an assumed position of a receiver. The model is established and validated using experimental, as well as real data. It is specially designed for complex environments and situations where positioning with highest accuracy is required - a typical example is navigation for blind people.

BlindeDroid: An Information Tracking System for Real-time Guiding of Blind People

Among the activities affected by visual impairment, navigation plays a fundamental role, since it enables the person to independently move in safety. The heterogeneous environment, easily perceived by visually enabled people, is hardly known by partially sighted people. A challenging task for these people is independent navigation in new spaces/buildings/environments.The environment is usually signaled and labeled with visual marks and signs which are not appropriate for blind persons. With the purpose of balancing the access to services and spaces among all persons, this work proposes an innovative navigation and information system to help the navigation of blind people within new environments (e.g. shopping center, public office building). Based on smartphones and wireless sensors deployed in the environment, we propose an information tracking system for realtime guide blind people (BlindeDroid). It offers guided navigation, answering questions, and providing objective information about places, products and services that are available surrounding the user.

Embedded System Application for Blind People Navigation Tool

Embedded System Application for Blind People Navigation Tool

Embedded System Application for Blind People Navigation Tool

The stick for blindman navigational aid can only provide information about the presence of objects that being touched. This navigational aid stick can not provide more information such as object distance and the name of the place. To overcome this problem, we realized a navigational tool that can provide information about the distance of objects around the user and the name of the places where being passed. The existing objects are detected using three sets of ultra sonic sensors. These sensors emit ultrasonic signals, when the signal collide the obstacle, then will be reflected back and being received by these sensors too. The time lag between the transmitting and receiving signals then will be converted into the distance. RFID reader is used to read the presence or absence of tags around the RFID reader. Identity tag emits a signal that will be used to mark the place name. The results of measuring distance and sequence voice database recorder gives a good yield. Voice database recorder circuit works as well as the detection of RFID tags.

3D Scene Modeling And Understanding From Image Sequences

A new method for 3D modeling is proposed, which generates a content-based 3D mosaic (CB3M) representation for long video sequences of 3D, dynamic urban scenes captured by a camera on a mobile platform. In the first phase, a set of parallel-perspective (pushbroom) mosaics with varying viewing directions is generated to capture both the 3D and dynamic aspects of the scene under the camera coverage. In the second phase, a unified patch-based stereo matching algorithm is applied to extract parametric representations of the color, structure and motion of the dynamic and/or 3D objects in urban scenes, where a lot of planar surfaces exist. Multiple pairs of stereo mosaics are used for facilitating reliable stereo matching, occlusion handling, accurate 3D reconstruction and robust moving target detection. The outcome of this phase is a CB3M representation, which is a highly compressed visual representation for a dynamic 3D scene, and has object contents of both 3D and motion information. In the third phase, a multi-layer based scene understanding algorithm is proposed, resulting in a planar surface model for higher-level object representations. Experimental results are given for both simulated and several different real video sequences of large-scale 3D scenes to show the accuracy and effectiveness of the representation. We also show the patch-based stereo matching algorithm and the CB3M representation can be generalized to 3D modeling with perspective views using either a single camera or a stereovision head on a ground mobile platform or a pedestrian. Applications of the proposed method include airborne or ground video surveillance, 3D urban scene modeling, traffic survey, transportation planning and the visual aid for perception and navigation of blind people.

MAB-I (Mobility Assistant for Blind)

The anxiety of the humans to eradicate the difficulties of people landed up in the technological advancements. But the present scenario in India shows that navigation of blind people is a difficult task. The blind people have been using sticks and dogs for their navigation for the past decades. To make them autonomous in their mobility we put forward our idea over the existence of voice commands (IVRS).Two issues have been discussed in this paper. (i)Their navigation has been instructed by the prodigious vibroactuators which could make their mobility in a glib way [1]. The vibrations sensed through haptic perception by the blind make them to reach their destination. Voice commands will be given along with the vibrations in order to make them comfortable [2]. (ii) Our proposal proposes an idea to detect the hindrances using Ultrasonic sensors and it alerts them.The idea has been levelled up with prototype which gave the better results which has been illustrated in this paper.

Design of Intelligent Guide Vehicle for Blind People

Traditionally, guide dogs are used as a travel aid for blind people. But they cannot be popularized because the training cost for guide dogs is quite high. This paper presents an intelligent guide vehicle prototype for blind people. The system is developed by using ARM as a controller and processor, via integration of ultrasonic detection and photoelectric detection technology, aiming at automatically navigation for blind people. This system mainly consists of four modules, which are ultrasonic detection module, photoelectric detection module, voice prompt module and automatic control module. The signal reflected by roadblock on the road can be detected by ultrasonic detection module which can work out distance between roadblock and guide vehicle. The aim of photoelectric detection module is to realize the function of road recognition and tracking. Voice prompt module can provide information of distance of roadblock. Strategies of obstacle avoidance were taken to the blind when the guide vehicle is going to avoid roadblock. If the roadblock is less than 50cm away, the automatic control module will automatically set the guide vehicle to avoid obstacles. Preliminary experimental results show that users can control and navigate with the intelligent guide vehicle.

Scene interpretation by fusion of segment and region information

This paper describes a system that gives a simplified interpretation of real scenes through analysis of monocular images. Scenes are described by fusing information derived by the edge segments and by the regions extracted from the scene. The interpretation is given in terms of primitives such as surfaces and their spatial relationships. Real indoor and outdoor scenes relative to urban and rural environments have been used to validate the system. The main goal of the proposed architecture is to provide help for blind people's navigation, but the techniques developed are also suitable for robotics applications.