Visually impaired user experience using a 3D-enhanced facility management system for indoors navigation

Abstract

We developed a 3D-Enhanced Facility Management System for Indoors Navigation (3D-EFMS-IN) to assist visually impaired users (VIU). Additionally, the system aims to facilitate the management of estate property and provide support for future scenarios related to emergencies, security, and robotics devices. The system combines four main subsystems: Mapping, Navigation Paths, Indoor Localisation and Navigation, and a Visualisation. An Integration of the subsystems has been done and a pretest with one VIU was performed to obtain feedback and tune the critical characteristics of our development. We observed that the system offers an acceptable preliminary user experience for VIU and future tests require to improve the latency of the system and usability. Shortly, we aim to obtain qualitative and quantitative measurements in a significant pool of users once the COVID lockdown ends.