Exploring the Use of Wearables to Enable Indoor Navigation for Blind Users

One of the challenges that people with visual impairments (VI) have to have to confront daily, is navigating independently through foreign or unfamiliar spaces.Navigating through unfamiliar spaces without assistance is very time consuming and leads to lower mobility. Especially in the case of indoor environments where the use of GPS is impossible, this task becomes even harder.However, advancements in mobile and wearable computing pave the path to new cheap assistive technologies that can make the lives of people with VI easier.Wearable devices have great potential for assistive applications for users who are blind as they typically feature a camera and support hands and eye free interaction. Smart watches and heads up displays (HUDs), in combination with smartphones, can provide a basis for development of advanced algorithms, capable of providing inexpensive solutions for navigation in indoor spaces. New interfaces are also introduced making the interaction between users who are blind and mo-bile devices more intuitive.This work presents a set of new systems and technologies created to help users with VI navigate indoor environments. The first system presented is an indoor navigation system for people with VI that operates by using sensors found in mo-bile devices and virtual maps of the environment. The second system presented helps users navigate large open spaces with minimum veering. Next a study is conducted to determine the accuracy of pedometry based on different body placements of the accelerometer sensors. Finally, a gesture detection system is introduced that helps communication between the user and mobile devices by using sensors in wearable devices

Furthering Service 4.0: Harnessing Intelligent Immersive Environments and Systems

With the increasing complexity of service operations in different industries and more advanced uses of specialized equipment and procedures, the great current challenge for companies is to increase employees' expertise and their ability to maintain and improve service quality. In this regard, Service 4.0 aims to support and promote innovation in service operations using emergent technology. Current technological innovations present a significant opportunity to provide on-site, real-time support for field service professionals in many areas

The last-seen image : an image-based approach for finding lost objects using a head-mounted display

Considering the current development of commercial head-mounted displays (HMD), it is likely that HMDs will be widely used in the near future. Therefore, it becomes feasible to build systems that rely on HMD technology. Real-world search engines aim at supporting the user's search capabilities in the real world. HMDs are a possible device to guide a user towards the location of an object. To ensure a high usability, it is essential to find suitable location representations of search results on an HMD. Based on previous findings, we present a novel location representation called "last-seen image" to locate objects in a known environment (e.g. the user’s home or office building). The last-seen image shows the picture of a sought object including the surrounding context of the object. We implemented a prototype on an HMD using WiFi indoor positioning to provide the proposed visualization as well as a map visualization. We conducted a user study comparing our proposed last-seen image approach to a map based approach. The last-seen image showed to be significantly faster for finding harder hidden objects compared to the map representation. However, the map was favored for finding the correct room. Therefore, we propose a hybrid system using the map representation to find the correct room and using the last-seen image to find the object on room-level.Aufgrund der aktuellen Entwicklung von Head-Mounted Displays (HMD) ist es sehr wahrscheinlich, dass HMDs in Zukunft allgegenwärtig sein werden. Deshalb wird ein System, welches auf der Benutzung von HMDs basiert, realisierbar. Real-World Search Engines unterstützen einen User, verlorene Gegenstände wiederzufinden. HMDs eignen sich zur Repräsentation solcher Suchergebnisse. Um die Benutzbarkeit solcher Systeme zu garantieren, ist es wichtig, eine passende Repräsentationsart zu finden. Aufgrund vorheriger Ergebnisse stellen wir eine neuartige Repräsentationsart zur Objektlokalisierung vor: das Last-Seen Image. Das Last-Seen Image zeigt das Bild eines gesuchten Gegenstandes, welches nicht nur den Gegenstand selbst, sondern auch die Umgebung zeigt. Wir haben einen Prototypen entwickelt, welcher auf einem HMD eine Kartenansicht und das Last-Seen Image bereitstellt. Daraufhin haben wir eine Benutzerstudie durchgeführt, um das Last-Seen Image mit der Kartendarstellung zu vergleichen. Es hat sich gezeigt, dass schwer versteckte Objekte mithilfe des Last-Seen Image deutlich schneller gefunden werden als mit der Kartendarstellung. Jedoch wurde die Karte bevorzugt, um den richtigen Raum zu finden. Deshalb empfehlen wir die Benutzung eines Hybriden Systems, welches die Kartendarstellung verwendet, um den richtigen Raum zu finden. Sobald man sich in dem richtigen Raum befindet wird das Last-Seen Image angezeigt

Exploring the Use of Wearables to develop Assistive Technology for Visually Impaired People

This thesis explores the usage of two prominent wearable devices to develop assistive technology for users who are visually impaired. Specifically, the work in this thesis aims at improving the quality of life of users who are visually impaired by improving their mobility and ability to socially interact with others. We explore the use of a smart watch for creating low-cost spatial haptic applications. This app explores the use of haptic feedback provided using a smartwatch and smartphone to provide navigation instructions that let visually impaired people safely traverse a large open space. This spatial feedback guides them to walk on a straight path from source to destination by avoiding veering. Exploring the paired interaction between a Smartphone and a Smartwatch, helped to overcome the limitation that smart devices have only single haptic actuator.We explore the use of a head-mounted display to enhance social interaction by helping people with visual impairments align their head towards a conversation partner as well as maintain personal space during a conversation. Audio feedback is provided to the users guiding them to achieve effective face-to-face communication. A qualitative study of this method shows the effectiveness of the application and explains how it helps visually impaired people to perceive non-verbal cues and feel more engaged and assertive in social interactions