2,313 research outputs found
A pathway to independence : wayfinding systems which adapt to a visually impaired person's context
Despite an increased amount of technologies and systems designed to address the navigational requirements of the visually impaired community of approximately 7.4 million in Europe, current research has failed to sufficiently address the human issues associated to their design and use. As more types of sensing technologies are developed to facilitate visually impaired travellers for different navigational purposes (local vs. distant and indoor vs. outdoor), an effective process of synchronisation is required. This synchronisation is represented through context-aware computing, which allows contextual information to not just be sensed (like most current wayfinding systems), but also adapted, discovered and augmented. In this paper, three user studies concerning the suitability of different types of navigational information for visually impaired and sighted people are described. For such systems to be effective, human cognitive maps, models and intentions need to be the focus of further research, in order to provide information that is tailored to a user's task, situation or environment. Methodologies aimed at establishing these issues need to be demonstrated through a multidisciplinary framework
Use of Augmented Reality in Human Wayfinding: A Systematic Review
Augmented reality technology has emerged as a promising solution to assist
with wayfinding difficulties, bridging the gap between obtaining navigational
assistance and maintaining an awareness of one's real-world surroundings. This
article presents a systematic review of research literature related to AR
navigation technologies. An in-depth analysis of 65 salient studies was
conducted, addressing four main research topics: 1) current state-of-the-art of
AR navigational assistance technologies, 2) user experiences with these
technologies, 3) the effect of AR on human wayfinding performance, and 4)
impacts of AR on human navigational cognition. Notably, studies demonstrate
that AR can decrease cognitive load and improve cognitive map development, in
contrast to traditional guidance modalities. However, findings regarding
wayfinding performance and user experience were mixed. Some studies suggest
little impact of AR on improving outdoor navigational performance, and certain
information modalities may be distracting and ineffective. This article
discusses these nuances in detail, supporting the conclusion that AR holds
great potential in enhancing wayfinding by providing enriched navigational
cues, interactive experiences, and improved situational awareness.Comment: 52 page
SLAM for Visually Impaired People: A Survey
In recent decades, several assistive technologies for visually impaired and
blind (VIB) people have been developed to improve their ability to navigate
independently and safely. At the same time, simultaneous localization and
mapping (SLAM) techniques have become sufficiently robust and efficient to be
adopted in the development of assistive technologies. In this paper, we first
report the results of an anonymous survey conducted with VIB people to
understand their experience and needs; we focus on digital assistive
technologies that help them with indoor and outdoor navigation. Then, we
present a literature review of assistive technologies based on SLAM. We discuss
proposed approaches and indicate their pros and cons. We conclude by presenting
future opportunities and challenges in this domain.Comment: 26 pages, 5 tables, 3 figure
Experimental Evaluation of Indoor Navigation Devices
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 59/1, December 2016 published by SAGE Publishing, All rights reserved.Augmented reality (AR) interfaces for indoor navigation on handheld mobile devices seem to greatly enhance directional assistance and user engagement, but it is sometimes challenging for users to hold the device at specific position and orientation during navigation. Previous studies have not adequately explored wearable devices in this context. In the current study, we developed a prototype AR indoor navigation application in order to evaluate and compare handheld devices and wearable devices such as Google Glass, in terms of performance, workload, and perceived usability. The results showed that although the wearable device was perceived to have better accuracy, its overall navigation performance and workload were still similar to a handheld device. We also found that digital navigation aids were better than paper maps in terms of shorter task completion time and lower workload, but digital navigation aids also resulted in worse route/map retention.NSERC Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2015-04134
Hacking Blind Navigation
Independent navigation in unfamiliar and complex environments is a major challenge for blind people. This challenge motivates a multi-disciplinary effort in the CHI community aimed at developing assistive technologies to support the orientation and mobility of blind people, including related disciplines such as accessible computing, cognitive sciences, computer vision, and ubiquitous computing. This workshop intends to bring these communities together to increase awareness on recent advances in blind navigation assistive technologies, benefit from diverse perspectives and expertises, discuss open research challenges, and explore avenues for multi-disciplinary collaborations. Interactions are fostered through a panel on Open Challenges and Avenues for Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Minute-Madness presentations, and a Hands-On Session where workshop participants can hack (design or prototype) new solutions to tackle open research challenges. An expected outcome is the emergence of new collaborations and research directions that can result in novel assistive technologies to support independent blind navigation
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