A multimodal smartphone interface for active perception by visually impaired

The diffuse availability of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, has the potential to bring substantial benefits to the people with sensory impairments. The solution proposed in this paper is part of an ongoing effort to create an accurate obstacle and hazard detector for the visually impaired, which is embedded in a hand-held device. In particular, it presents a proof of concept for a multimodal interface to control the orientation of a smartphone's camera, while being held by a person, using a combination of vocal messages, 3D sounds and vibrations. The solution, which is to be evaluated experimentally by users, will enable further research in the area of active vision with human-in-the-loop, with potential application to mobile assistive devices for indoor navigation of visually impaired people

Distributed and adaptive location identification system for mobile devices

Indoor location identification and navigation need to be as simple, seamless, and ubiquitous as its outdoor GPS-based counterpart is. It would be of great convenience to the mobile user to be able to continue navigating seamlessly as he or she moves from a GPS-clear outdoor environment into an indoor environment or a GPS-obstructed outdoor environment such as a tunnel or forest. Existing infrastructure-based indoor localization systems lack such capability, on top of potentially facing several critical technical challenges such as increased cost of installation, centralization, lack of reliability, poor localization accuracy, poor adaptation to the dynamics of the surrounding environment, latency, system-level and computational complexities, repetitive labor-intensive parameter tuning, and user privacy. To this end, this paper presents a novel mechanism with the potential to overcome most (if not all) of the abovementioned challenges. The proposed mechanism is simple, distributed, adaptive, collaborative, and cost-effective. Based on the proposed algorithm, a mobile blind device can potentially utilize, as GPS-like reference nodes, either in-range location-aware compatible mobile devices or preinstalled low-cost infrastructure-less location-aware beacon nodes. The proposed approach is model-based and calibration-free that uses the received signal strength to periodically and collaboratively measure and update the radio frequency characteristics of the operating environment to estimate the distances to the reference nodes. Trilateration is then used by the blind device to identify its own location, similar to that used in the GPS-based system. Simulation and empirical testing ascertained that the proposed approach can potentially be the core of future indoor and GPS-obstructed environments

Satellite Navigation for the Age of Autonomy

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) brought navigation to the masses. Coupled with smartphones, the blue dot in the palm of our hands has forever changed the way we interact with the world. Looking forward, cyber-physical systems such as self-driving cars and aerial mobility are pushing the limits of what localization technologies including GNSS can provide. This autonomous revolution requires a solution that supports safety-critical operation, centimeter positioning, and cyber-security for millions of users. To meet these demands, we propose a navigation service from Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites which deliver precision in-part through faster motion, higher power signals for added robustness to interference, constellation autonomous integrity monitoring for integrity, and encryption / authentication for resistance to spoofing attacks. This paradigm is enabled by the 'New Space' movement, where highly capable satellites and components are now built on assembly lines and launch costs have decreased by more than tenfold. Such a ubiquitous positioning service enables a consistent and secure standard where trustworthy information can be validated and shared, extending the electronic horizon from sensor line of sight to an entire city. This enables the situational awareness needed for true safe operation to support autonomy at scale.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 2020 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS

Development of an Emergency Radio Beacon for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Emergency locator transmitters (ELTs) used to locate manned aircrafts are not well suited to find and recover small crashed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). ELTs utilize an international satellite system for search and rescue (Cospas-Sarsat System), which should leverage its expensive resources to save lives as a priority. Besides, ELTs are too big and heavy to be used within small UAVs. Some of the existing solutions for this problem are based on receivers that detect signal strength, which may be a long and tedious process not suitable for user needs. Others do not have enough range or require radio license and expensive amateur radio receivers. This paper presents an emergency radio beacon specifically designed to locate small UAVs. It is triggered automatically in the event of a crash and allows finding and recovering a crashed UAV in a fast and simple way. It meets not only the required specifications of user-friendliness, size and weight of this kind of application, but also it is a high precision and low cost device. Besides, it has enough range and endurance. The experiments carried out show the operation of the proposed system