Context-aware assistive indoor navigation of visually impaired persons

Abstract

This paper presents an approach for context awareness in navigation for visually impaired persons via sensor-based obstacle detection, obstacle recognition, sensor fusion, and walking context analysis. Sonar and vision sensor data are fused using a complementary sensor fusion approach. A wearable belt has sonar and vision sensors that detect and recognize obstacles, respectively. A fuzzy logic model is used for safety aspect handling during visually impaired navigation. Walking context analysis handles decisions on the current walking status by using clues acquired from the smartphone application and obstacle detection process. Feedback is provided via audio and tactile cues. The usability evaluation experiment using the proof-of-concept reveals positive results and other areas of investigation have been identified.