Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A Prototype Mobility and Navigation Tele-Assistance System for Visually Disabled

2009; Springer Science+Business Media; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-642-03202-8_8

1867-5670

Michał Bujacz, Przemysław Barański, M. Morański, Paweł Strumiłło, Andrzej Materka,

Video Surveillance and Tracking Methods

The paper presents initial research on the system for remote guidance of the blind. The concept is based on the idea that a blind pedestrian can be aided by spoken instructions from an operator who receives a video stream from a camera and GPS readouts from a sensor carried by a visually impaired user. An early prototype utilizing two laptop PCs and a wireless internet connection is used in indoor orientation and mobility trials, which aim to measure the potential usefulness of the system and discover possible problems with user-operator communication or device design. A second prototype is also constructed using a smaller subnotebook Flybook computer, a GPS sensor and GSM modem with HSDPA tech nology, and tested in outdoor environments. Test results show a quantitative performance increase when travelling with a remote guide: 15-50% speed increase and halved times of navigational tasks in indoor trials, as well as a significant decrease in the number of missteps and accidental obstacle collisions in outdoor trials. A large part of the success is the supportive feedback from the blind testers, who point out the engendered feeling of safety when assisted.