Electronic Travel Aid Research Articles

Rompi Penyedia Informasi bagi Penyandang Tunanetra Menggunakan Multisensor HC-SR04

Various electronic travel aids for people having visual impairment have been developed based on ultrasonic object detection employing the HC-SR04 ultrasonic proximity sensor. However, most of them do not consider blind spots where harmful objects cannot be detected. This study discusses the development of a vest that can detect objects in front of the blinds more widely and provide sound alert if an object in front is detected. This detector was developed based on an Arduino Uno equipped with five HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors, and a mini DFPlayer module. In addition, blind area analysis of sensor detection is carried out to overcome objects that are not detected by similar studies. Horizontally, this travel vest sweeps objects up to 150 cm in distance with a 25o right or left angle deviation from forward direction. Vertically, object detection reaches up to 150 cm in distance with both upward and downward deviation of 30o from the vest.

Zebra Crossing Detection and Time Scheduling Accuracy, Enhancement Optimization Using Artificial Intelligence

Zebra crossing detection is a fundamental function of the electronic travel aid. It can locate the zebra crossing and estimate its direction to help the visually impaired to cross the road safely. In contrast to the conventional methods, a regression approach is adopted to detect zebra crossing based on convolutional neural networks. Specifically, a fixed‐size window slides across the image captured at the intersection. The image patches are sequentially fed to the logistic regression model to identify the zebra crossing. Then the image patch of zebra crossing is fed to the regression model to predict the direction. The parameters of models are optimized by the ANN back propagation algorithm before predictions. Compared with existing methods, the proposed method can improve the precision‐recall performance of the zebra crossing identification and reduce the root mean square error of predicted directions.

Self-reported use of technology by orientation and mobility clients in Australia and Malaysia before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the 1960s, many electronic travel aids have been developed for people with low vision or blindness to improve their independent travel skills, but uptake of these specialist devices has been limited. This study investigated what technologies orientation and mobility (O&M) clients in Australia and Malaysia have, use, like, and want to support their travel, to inform technology research and development. This two-phase mixed-methods study surveyed O&M clients face-to-face in Malaysia (n = 9), and online in Australia (n = 50). Participants managed safe walking using a human guide, long cane, or guide dog when their vision was insufficient to see hazards, but a smartphone is now a standard travel aid in both Australia and Malaysia. Participants relied on smartphone accessibility features and identified 108 apps they used for travel: for planning (e.g., public transport timetables), sourcing information in transit (e.g., GPS location and directions, finding a taxi), sensory conversion (e.g., camera-to-voice, voice-to-text, video-to-live description), social connections (e.g., phone, email, Facebook), food (e.g., finding eateries, ordering online), and entertainment (e.g., music, games). They wanted to ‘carry less junk’, and sought better accessibility features, consistency across platforms, and fast, reliable, real-time information that supports confident, non-visual travel, especially into unfamiliar places.

Methodologies and evaluation of electronic travel aids for the visually impaired people: a review

Technological advancements have widely contributed to navigation aids. However, their large-scale adaptation for navigation solutions for visually impaired people haven’t been realized yet. Less participation of the visually impaired subject produces a designer-oriented navigation system which overshadows consumer necessity. The outcome results in trust and safety issues, hindering the navigation aids from really contribute to the safety of the targeted end user. This study categorizes electronic travel aids (ETAs) based on experimental evaluations, highlights the designer-centred development of navigation aids with insufficient participation of the visual impaired community. First the research breaks down the methodologies to achieve navigation, followed by categorization of the test and experimentation done to evaluate the systems and ranks it by maturity order. From 70 selected research articles, 51.4% accounts for simulation evaluation, 24.3% involve blindfolded-sighted humans, 22.9% involve visually impaired people and only 1.4% makes it into production and commercialization. Our systematic review offers a bird’s eye view on ETA development and evaluation and contributes to construction of navigational aids which really impact the target group of visually impaired people.

An IoT-based contribution to improve mobility of the visually impaired in Smart Cities

The Internet of Things envisions that objects of everyday life will be equipped with sensors, microcontrollers, transceivers for digital communication and suitable protocol which communicates among them and with users, becoming an integral part of Internet. Due to the growing developments in digital technologies, Smart Cities have been equipped with different electronic devices based on IoT and several applications are being created for most diverse areas of knowledge making systems more efficient. However, Assistive technology is a field that is not enough explored in this scenario yet. In this work, an integrated framework with an IoT architecture customized for an electronic cane (electronic travel aid designed for the visually impaired) has been designed. The architecture is organized by a five-layer architecture: edge technology, gateway, Internet, middleware and application. This new feature brings the ability to connect to environment devices, receiving the coordinates of their geographic locations, alerting the user when it is close to anyone of these devices and sending those coordinates to a web application for smart monitoring. Preliminary studies and experimental tests with three blind users of the Cane show that this approach would contribute to get more spatial information from the environment improving mobility of visually impaired people.

Blindness and the Reliability of Downwards Sensors to Avoid Obstacles: A Study with the EyeCane.

Vision loss has dramatic repercussions on the quality of life of affected people, particularly with respect to their orientation and mobility. Many devices are available to help blind people to navigate in their environment. The EyeCane is a recently developed electronic travel aid (ETA) that is inexpensive and easy to use, allowing for the detection of obstacles lying ahead within a 2 m range. The goal of this study was to investigate the potential of the EyeCane as a primary aid for spatial navigation. Three groups of participants were recruited: early blind, late blind, and sighted. They were first trained with the EyeCane and then tested in a life-size obstacle course with four obstacles types: cube, door, post, and step. Subjects were requested to cross the corridor while detecting, identifying, and avoiding the obstacles. Each participant had to perform 12 runs with 12 different obstacles configurations. All participants were able to learn quickly to use the EyeCane and successfully complete all trials. Amongst the various obstacles, the step appeared to prove the hardest to detect and resulted in more collisions. Although the EyeCane was effective for detecting obstacles lying ahead, its downward sensor did not reliably detect those on the ground, rendering downward obstacles more hazardous for navigation.

An Inconspicuous, Integrated Electronic Travel Aid for Visual Impairment

Abstract With a globally aging population, visual impairment is an increasingly pressing problem for our society. Visual disability drastically reduces quality of life and constitutes a large cost to the health care system. Mobility of the visually impaired is one of the most critical aspects affected by this disability, and yet, it relies on low-tech solutions, such as the white cane. Many avoid solutions entirely. In part, reluctance to use these solutions may be explained by their obtrusiveness, a strong deterrent for the adoption of many new devices. Here, we leverage new advancements in artificial intelligence, sensor systems, and soft electroactive materials toward an electronic travel aid with an obstacle detection and avoidance system for the visually impaired. The travel aid incorporates a stereoscopic camera platform, enabling computer vision, and a wearable haptic device that can stimulate discrete locations on the user’s abdomen to signal the presence of surrounding obstacles. The proposed technology could be integrated into commercial backpacks and support belts, thereby guaranteeing a discreet and unobtrusive solution.

A Framework for the Generation of Obstacle Data for the Study of Obstacle Detection by Ultrasonic Sensors

In addition to numerous problems faced by the Visually Impaired persons, navigation through the outdoor environment is one of them, as the terrain is unknown with surfaces filled with obstacles of different heights. Several Electronic Travel Aids are proposed in the literature, and the methodology is evaluated by placing different types of the obstacle, traveling through them blindfolded, and counting the number of times obstacles are detected or not by the system. In our view, this approach helps little for further advancing the current system as the experimental scenario is not repeatable entirely and makes it difficult to compare new research findings with any existing one. We therefore, present a model inspired by the real world settings for detecting low-lying obstacles, considering few assumptions and constraints. The simulations are also proposed based on the model to generate obstacle data any number of time. Furthermore, to validate our model and simulations, field experiments are conducted, and the results obtained are compared with the simulation result. The evaluation parameter in terms of standard deviation, accuracy, false positive, errors encountered suggest that the proposed model and simulations effectively encapsulates the real-world parameters and thus can be explored and utilized further by the research community.

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

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.

Analysis of Navigation Assistants for Blind and Visually Impaired People: A Systematic Review

Over the last few decades, the development in the field of navigation and routing devices has become a hindering task for the researchers to develop smart and intelligent guiding mechanism at indoor and outdoor locations for blind and visually impaired people (BVIPs). The existing research need to be analysed from a historical perception including early research on the first electronic travel aids to the use of modern artificial vision models for the navigation of BVIPs. Diverse approaches such as: e-cane or guide dog, infrared-based cane, laser based walker and many others are proposed for the navigation of BVIPs. But most of these techniques have limitations such as: infrared and ultrasonic based assistance has short range capacities for object detection. While laser based assistance can harm other people if it directly hit them on their eyes or any other part of the body. These trade-offs are critical to bring this technology in practice.To systematically assess, analyze, and identify the primary studies in this specialized field and provide an overview of the trends and empirical evidence in the proposed field. This systematic research work is performed by defining a set of relevant keywords, formulating four research questions, defining selection criteria for the articles, and synthesizing the empirical evidence in this area. Our pool of studies include 191 most relevant articles to the proposed field reported between 2011 and 2020 (a portion of 2020 is included). This systematic mapping will help the researchers, engineers, and practitioners to make more authentic decisions for finding gaps in the available navigation assistants and suggest a new and enhanced smart assistant application accordingly to ensure safety and accurate guidance of the BVIPs. This research work have several implications in particular the impact of reducing fatalities and major injuries of BVIPs.

Visual Echolocation Concept for the Colorophone Sensory Substitution Device Using Virtual Reality.

Detecting characteristics of 3D scenes is considered one of the biggest challenges for visually impaired people. This ability is nonetheless crucial for orientation and navigation in the natural environment. Although there are several Electronic Travel Aids aiming at enhancing orientation and mobility for the blind, only a few of them combine passing both 2D and 3D information, including colour. Moreover, existing devices either focus on a small part of an image or allow interpretation of a mere few points in the field of view. Here, we propose a concept of visual echolocation with integrated colour sonification as an extension of Colorophone—an assistive device for visually impaired people. The concept aims at mimicking the process of echolocation and thus provides 2D, 3D and additionally colour information of the whole scene. Even though the final implementation will be realised by a 3D camera, it is first simulated, as a proof of concept, by using VIRCO—a Virtual Reality training and evaluation system for Colorophone. The first experiments showed that it is possible to sonify colour and distance of the whole scene, which opens up a possibility to implement the developed algorithm on a hardware-based stereo camera platform. An introductory user evaluation of the system has been conducted in order to assess the effectiveness of the proposed solution for perceiving distance, position and colour of the objects placed in Virtual Reality.

Assistive cane for visually impaired persons for uneven surface detection with orientation restraint sensing

Purpose The reduced ability of eyes to see clearly even with the use of glasses is known as the state of visual impairment. Among the many challenges faced, outdoor travel is one of them requiring to travel through surfaces, which has potholes and bumps. Design/methodology/approach The depth of the pothole and height of the bump is also conveyed to the user through different vibration pattern of various intensity. With available electronic travel aids, the visually impaired persons are still more inclined to rely on their white cane than carrying additional equipment for obstacle avoidance. In the system, all the components can be attached to the white cane, requiring no additional device to carry. Findings Upon experimentation with different obstacle types, the system obtained a 24.88% higher score in comparison to normal walking cane. A comparison with the state of the art available systems is also provided. Originality/value Moreover, the accuracy of the assistive cane can be heavily degraded if the cane is not properly held by the user. To restrict the user to hold the cane in only required orientation an alignment sensing switch is also proposed, which is missing in the current available literature.

A Smart Real-Time Standalone Route Recognition System for Visually Impaired Persons

Visual Impairment is a common disability that results in poor or no eyesight, whose victims suffer inconveniences in performing their daily tasks. Visually impaired persons require some aids to interact with their environment safely. Existing navigation systems like electronic travel aids (ETAs) are mostly cloud-based and rely heavily on the internet and google map. This implies that systems deployment in locations with poor internet facilities and poorly structured environments is not feasible. This paper proposed a smart real-time standalone route recognition system for visually impaired persons. The proposed system makes use of a pedestrian route network, an interconnection of paths and their associated route tables, for providing directions of known locations in real-time for the user. Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, Gidan Kwanu campus was used as the case study. The result obtained from testing of the device search strategy on the field showed that the complexity of the algorithm used in searching for paths in the pedestrian network is , at worst-case scenario, where N is the number of paths available in the network. The accuracy of path recognition is 100%. This implies that the developed system is reliable and can be used in recognizing and navigating routes by the visual impaired in real-time.

A Comparative Study in Real-Time Scene Sonification for Visually Impaired People.

In recent years, with the development of depth cameras and scene detection algorithms, a wide variety of electronic travel aids for visually impaired people have been proposed. However, it is still challenging to convey scene information to visually impaired people efficiently. In this paper, we propose three different auditory-based interaction methods, i.e., depth image sonification, obstacle sonification as well as path sonification, which convey raw depth images, obstacle information and path information respectively to visually impaired people. Three sonification methods are compared comprehensively through a field experiment attended by twelve visually impaired participants. The results show that the sonification of high-level scene information, such as the direction of pathway, is easier to learn and adapt, and is more suitable for point-to-point navigation. In contrast, through the sonification of low-level scene information, such as raw depth images, visually impaired people can understand the surrounding environment more comprehensively. Furthermore, there is no interaction method that is best suited for all participants in the experiment, and visually impaired individuals need a period of time to find the most suitable interaction method. Our findings highlight the features and the differences of three scene detection algorithms and the corresponding sonification methods. The results provide insights into the design of electronic travel aids, and the conclusions can also be applied in other fields, such as the sound feedback of virtual reality applications.

An electronic travel aid device to help blind people playing sport

Blind people can locate and track a sound source with remarkable efficiency. Following this principle, we have developed an autonomous embedded device capable of guiding people using a spatialized virtual sound source. In this device, we use both the information provided by an accurate and low-latency real-time location system (RTLS) and the head orientation data provided by a low-cost inertial unit (IMU) to produce in real-time spatialized sound by bin-aural filtering. The system described in this paper has been designed to minimize the overall latency for both the location system and the binaural audio rendering engine. It demonstrates that it is possible to guide people by tracking spatial sound accurately, naturally, and with minimal training.

Obstacle avoidance using stereo vision and depth maps for visual aid devices

Comprehending the environment accurately and proficiently is one of the fundamental undertakings for the visually impaired. Many electronic travel aid devices are utilizing stereo vision techniques. However, there is no existing technology that helps to fulfill the requirements of the visually impaired and be economical at the same time. All the current technologies are implemented only for a specific purpose and have some constraints. In this paper, we propose a new framework that integrates the critical aspects of stereo vision with some additional features for aiding the visually impaired to solve their existing problems efficiently. In this system, both stereo vision and ultrasonic sensors have been integrated to get a precise awareness of the obstacles present in the real-time surroundings. The central concept is to categorize point vertices for the detection of objects in three-dimensional space according to height, width and slope of the adjacent vertices present in the images captured by CCD cameras. The intended assistive system serves to be more cost-effective for the visually impaired with the usage of CCD cameras and low-budget sensors. The assistive system in its recognition phase employs the proposed obstacle detection algorithm using stereo vision to recognize and track impediments that are at a farther distance. While, it employs ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles present at shorter distances. The system also overcomes the problem of finding holes and descending stairs, faced by devices that use monoscopic vision. Additional features, like the Buzzer, GPS, Voice module, Alert message, are being incorporated. The principle intention of this paper is to contribute our knowledge to assist the visually impaired to become independent and help them to adapt to various daily situations.

Tactile Working Memory Capacity of Users Who Are Blind in an Electronic Travel Aid Application with a Vibration Belt

Electronic travel aids (ETAs) can increase the safety and comfort of pedestrians who have a visual impairment by displaying obstacles through a vibrotactile navigation belt. Building a complete picture of relevant obstacles and finding a safe route requires ETA users to integrate vibrotactile cues over time and space in their tactile working memory. Previous research suggests that the sense of touch exhibits a working memory that has characteristics similar to vision and audition. However, the capacity of the tactile working memory and the effects of secondary tasks are still under-researched. We investigated tactile working memory capacity of 14 adolescent participants who are blind in an immediate, whole report recall test. Participants received trials consisting of one to five vibration patterns presented sequentially at different locations on their torso representing obstacles with a direction (vibration location) and distance (vibration pattern). Recall performance was assessed under four conditions: baseline and with distracting background sounds and/or while walking with the long cane. Both walking and ignoring distracting sounds are relevant for everyday use of an ETA and were expected to decrease memory performance. We calculated the 75% correct scores for two memory performance measures: the number of items in a trial (numerosity), and item location and pattern correct. In the baseline condition, the scores were close to ceiling (i.e., 5 items). However, in the presence of distracting sounds and while walking, the scores were reduced to 3.2 items for numerosity and 1.6 items for location and identity correct. We recommend using 2 items as the maximum tactile working memory load in an applied setting unless users are trained and/or can adopt their strategy without unacceptable costs, such as reducing their walking speed.

Desire of Use: A Hierarchical Decomposition of Activities and its Application on Mobility of Blind and Low-Vision Individuals.

Blind and low-vision individuals often have severely reduced mobility, affecting their quality of life and associated socioeconomic cost. Despite numerous efforts and great technological progress, the only used primary mobility aids are still white canes and seeing-eye dogs. Furthermore, there is a permeating tendency in the field to ignore knowledge of both mobility and the target group, as well as constantly design new metrics and tests that makes comparisons between solutions markedly more difficult. The Desire of Use model is introduced in an effort to promote a more holistic approach; it should be generalizable for any activity by any user, but is here applied on mobility of blind and low-vision individuals by a proposal and integration of parameters. An embodiment of the model is presented and with it we show why popular mobility metrics of today are insufficient to guide design; what tasks and metrics that should provide better understanding; as well as which fundamental properties determine them and are critical to discuss. Desire of Use has been introduced as a tool and a theoretical framework, and a realization has been proposed. Desire of Use offers both a structured perspective of pertinent design challenges facing a given solution, as well as a platform from which to compare test results and properties of existing solutions; in for example the field of electronic travel aids it should prove valuable for designing and evaluating new tests and devices.

Insight on Electronic Travel Aids for Visually Impaired People: A Review on the Electromagnetic Technology

This review deals with a comprehensive description of the available electromagnetic travel aids for visually impaired and blind people. This challenging task is considered as an outstanding research area due to the rapid growth in the number of people with visual impairments. For decades, different technologies have been employed for solving the crucial challenge of improving the mobility of visually impaired people, but a suitable solution has not yet been developed. Focusing this contribution on the electromagnetic technology, the state-of-the-art of available solutions is demonstrated. Electronic travel aids based on electromagnetic technology have been identified as an emerging technology due to their high level of achievable performance in terms of accuracy, flexibility, lightness, and cost-effectiveness.

Smart Glass for Visual Impaired People

To defeat the voyaging trouble for the outwardly debilitated individuals, this endeavor presents an ETA (Electronic Travel Aids)- canny controlling device in the condition of a few eyeglasses for provide these people guidance gainfully and safely. Unique in relation to existing works, a novel Convolution Neural Network(CNN) based deterrent keeping away from calculation is proposed, which uses Google's pre-prepared datasets of different classes to take care of the issues of identifying little impediments, and straight forward obstructions, for example bicycle. For absolutely visually impaired individuals, three sorts of voice guidelines to educate the bearing where they can proceed. For deaf and dumb people we integrate two servo motors to insist them through touch. The prototype consists of pair of servo motors and camera in the eye glass and its effectiveness and precision were tried by an ongoing snag. The test result demonstrates that the savvy controlling glass is effective in accuracy than any other traditional algorithms. Thus it serves as a user friendly device by its simplistic design.