Enabling independent navigation for visually impaired people through a wearable vision-based feedback system
Open accessAbstract
This work introduces a wearable system to provide situational awareness for blind and visually impaired people. The system includes a camera, an embedded computer and a haptic device to provide feedback when an obstacle is detected. The system uses techniques from computer vision and motion planning to (1) identify walkable space; (2) plan step-by-step a safe motion trajectory in the space, and (3) recognize and locate certain types of objects, for example the location of an empty chair. These descriptions are communicated to the person wearing the device through vibrations. We present results from user studies with low- and high-level tasks, including walking through a maze without collisions, locating a chair, and walking through a crowded environment while avoiding people.
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Visual-navigation systems for the visually impaired share some basic features like localization, obstacle recognition, path planning of SLAM for autonomous driving in smart transportation and smart agriculture, but also have some differences.
“3) visual-navigation systems for the visually impaired [142], [143], [144], share some basic features like localization, obstacle recognition, path planning of SLAM for autonomous driving in smart transportation and smart agriculture (Section IV-B and Section IV-G), but also have some differences.”
From Empowering things with intelligence: a survey of the progress, challenges, and opportunities in artificial intelligence of things (2021) · cites this paper as [143]
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Safe Local Navigation for Visually Impaired Users With a Time-of-Flight and Haptic Feedback Device
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- Authors
- Wang, H.-C., Katzschmann, R. K., Teng, S., Araki, B., Giarre, L., & Rus, D.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Venue
- 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2017-05
- Pages
- 6533-6540
- ISSN
- 1050-4729 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2736525866
- Cited by
- 167
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 30.01
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation/Proceedings (publishedVersion)
- IRIS UNIMORE (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Assistive Technology in Communication and Mobility
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Teleoperation and Haptic Systems
- Keywords
- visually impaired navigation, wearable assistive technology, haptic feedback, obstacle detection, motion planning, situational awareness, object recognition, collision avoidance, maze navigation, user study
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