Indoor Navigation System for the Visually Impaired with User-centric Graph Representation and Vision Detection Assistance

Independent navigation through unfamiliar indoor spaces is beset with barriers for the visually impaired. Hence, this issue impairs their independence, self-respect and self-reliance. In this thesis I will introduce a new indoor navigation system for the blind and visually impaired that is affordable for both the user and the building owners. Outdoor vehicle navigation technical challenges have been solved using location information provided by Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and maps using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). However, GPS and GIS information is not available for indoor environments making indoor navigation, a challenging technical problem. Moreover, the indoor navigation system needs to be developed with the blind user in mind, i.e., special care needs to be given to vision free user interface. In this project, I design and implement an indoor navigation application for the blind and visually impaired that uses RFID technology and Computer Vision for localization and a navigation map generated automatically based on environmental landmarks by simulating a user’s behavior. The focus of the indoor navigation system is no longer only on the indoor environment itself, but the way the blind users can experience it. This project will try this new idea in solving indoor navigation problems for blind and visually impaired users

A Wearable RFID-Based Navigation System for the Visually Impaired

Recent studies have focused on developing advanced assistive devices to help blind or visually impaired people. Navigation is challenging for this community; however, developing a simple yet reliable navigation system is still an unmet need. This study targets the navigation problem and proposes a wearable assistive system. We developed a smart glove and shoe set based on radio-frequency identification technology to assist visually impaired people with navigation and orientation in indoor environments. The system enables the user to find the directions through audio feedback. To evaluate the device's performance, we designed a simple experimental setup. The proposed system has a simple structure and can be personalized according to the user's requirements. The results identified that the platform is reliable, power efficient, and accurate enough for indoor navigation.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, 3 table

A Real Time Indoor Navigation and Monitoring System for Firefighters and Visually Impaired

ABSTRACT A REAL TIME INDOOR NAVIGATION AND MONITORING SYSTEM FOR FIREFIGHTERS AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED MAY 2011 SIDDHESH RAJAN GANDHI M.S. E.C.E, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Aura Ganz There has been a widespread growth of technology in almost every facet of day to day life. But there are still important application areas in which technology advancements have not been implemented in a cost effective and user friendly manner. Such applications which we will address in this proposal include: 1) indoor localization and navigation of firefighters during rescue operations and 2) indoor localization and navigation for the blind and visually impaired population. Firefighting is a dangerous job to perform as there can be several unexpected hazards while rescuing victims. Since the firefighters do not have any knowledge about the internal structure of the fire ridden building, they will not be able to find the location of the EXIT door, a fact that can prove to be fatal. We introduce an indoor location tracking and navigation system (FIREGUIDE) using RFID technology integrated with augmented reality. FIREGUIDE assists the firefighters to find the nearest exit location by providing the navigation instructions to the exits as well as an Augmented Reality view of the location and direction of the exits. The system also presents the Incident Commander the current firefighter’s location superimposed on a map of the building floor. We envision that the FIREGUIDE system will save a significant number of firefighters and victims’ lives. Blind or visually impaired people find it difficult to navigate independently in both outdoor and indoor environments. The outdoor navigation problem can be solved by using systems that have GPS support. But indoor navigation systems for the blind or visually impaired are still a challenge to conquer, given the requirements of low cost and user friendly operation. In order to enhance the perception of indoor and unfamiliar environments for the blind and visually-impaired, as well as to aid in their navigation through such environments, we propose a novel approach that provides context–aware navigation services. INSIGHT uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), and tagged spaces (audio landmarks), enabling a ubiquitous computing system with contextual awareness of its users while providing them persistent and context-aware information. We present INSIGHT system that supports a number of unique features such as: a) Low deployment and maintenance cost; b) Scalability, i.e. we can deploy the system in very large buildings; c) An on-demand system that does not overwhelm the user, as it offers small amounts of information on demand; and d) Portability and ease-of-use, i.e., the custom handheld device carried by the user is compact and instructions are received audibly

Scalable and Vision Free User Interface Approaches for Indoor Navigation Systems for the Visually Impaired

This thesis introduces scalable and vision free user interface approaches for indoor navigation systems for the visually impaired. Using an Android Smartphone that runs the indoor navigation system – Percept Application with accessibility features, the blind user obtains navigation instructions generated automatically by our navigation generation algorithm to the chosen destination when touching specific landmarks tagged with Near Field Communication tags. This thesis also introduces an Orientation & Mobility Survey Tool that can help O&M Instructors survey the building and deploy such indoor navigation system. The system was deployed and tested in a large building at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Localization and Navigation System for Indoor Mobile Robot

Visually impaired people usually find it hard to travel independently in many public places such as airports and shopping malls due to the problems of obstacle avoidance and guidance to the desired location. Therefore, in the highly dynamic indoor environment, how to improve indoor navigation robot localization and navigation accuracy so that they guide the visually impaired well becomes a problem. One way is to use visual SLAM. However, typical visual SLAM either assumes a static environment, which may lead to less accurate results in dynamic environments or assumes that the targets are all dynamic and removes all the feature points above, sacrificing computational speed to a large extent with the available computational power. This paper seeks to explore marginal localization and navigation systems for indoor navigation robotics. The proposed system is designed to improve localization and navigation accuracy in highly dynamic environments by identifying and tracking potentially moving objects and using vector field histograms for local path planning and obstacle avoidance. The system has been tested on a public indoor RGB-D dataset, and the results show that the new system improves accuracy and robustness while reducing computation time in highly dynamic indoor scenes.Comment: Accepted by the 2023 5th International Conference on Materials Science, Machine and Energy Engineerin

BlueEyes: using beacon and smart phone for visually impaired / blind people

There are currently few options for navigational aids for the blind and visually impaired (BVI) in large indoor and outdoor spaces. Such indoor and outdoor spaces can be difficult to navigate even for the general sighted population if they are disoriented due to unfamiliarity or other reasons. This paper presents an indoor wayfinding system called GuideBeacon for the blind, visually impaired, and disoriented (BVID) that assists people in navigating between any two points within indoor environments. The GuideBeacon system allows users equipped with smartphones to interact with low cost Bluetooth-based beacons deployed strategically within the indoor space of interest to navigate their surroundings. This paper describes the technical challenges faced in designing such a system, the design decisions made in building the current version of the GuideBeacon system, the solutions developed to meet the technical challenges, and results from the evaluation of the system. Results presented in this paper obtained from field testing GuideBeacon with BVI and sighted participants suggests that it can be used by the BVID for navigation in large indoor spaces independently and effectively. This paper presents novel structure for visually impaired/blind people using beacon and smart phone. The proposed structure is consisted of three parts. In the first part esp8266 module due to ultra-low power consumption, in the second part configurator application to configure these beacon and last part is mobile application to detect these beacons. The aim is to help visually impaired/blind people to knowledge the environment in which they live by. Three tests applied in real environment. The results show good performance for the suggested scheme help the visually impaired/blind people reach the desired devices location successfully without error. In conclusion, beacon and smart phone were a valid and reliable method to help the visually impaired/blind people to know the location of devices that are nearest from him in indoor and outdoor environment

An Indoor and Outdoor Navigation System for Visually Impaired People

In this paper, we present a system that allows visually impaired people to autonomously navigate in an unknown indoor and outdoor environment. The system, explicitly designed for low vision people, can be generalized to other users in an easy way. We assume that special landmarks are posed for helping the users in the localization of pre-defined paths. Our novel approach exploits the use of both the inertial sensors and the camera integrated into the smartphone as sensors. Such a navigation system can also provide direction estimates to the tracking system to the users. The success of out approach is proved both through experimental tests performed in controlled indoor environments and in real outdoor installations. A comparison with deep learning methods has been presented

Smartphone application for accessible navigation

Διπλωματική εργασία--Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2018.The main aim of this study is to investigate how the modern smartphone technology can assist people with visual impairments in indoor navigation tasks. We use the free and open indoor navigation service Anyplace, to design an indoor guidance system that is accessible, inexpensive, simple and user-friendly to different user groups disregarding their disabilities. The Android application that Anyplace offers, was extended and modified to serve also the needs of visually impaired users. The presented system works well with the assistive applications that Android platform offers and provides various ways for interaction between the user and the system. The system is communicating with Anyplace server to inform the user about the information of the surrounding environment and guide him/her to the desired place in the building with accessible messages. The application can process, specific pre-defined user commands and location information from existing QR labels in the building. This thesis is focusing on assisting the impaired users on indoor navigation tasks, but not on replacing the assistive means that the visually impaired user is already using. (e.g. long cane, guide dog) Experimental results show the ability of the system to effectively communicate with the user and assist him/her in way-finding tasks in the building of the University of Macedonia