A Context-Aware Voice Operated Mobile Guidance System for Visually Impaired Persons

Abstract

The most important travelling aid for the visually impaired person is still the white cane which is multifunctional, cheap and reliable. In studies about visually impaired person navigation, it has been noted that even a small amount of extra information about the environment has a remarkable positive impact for those persons. In this chapter, a mobile application named Mobile Vision is described. The Mobile Vision application, developed at the University of Mauritius, is an innovative android application that is used to augment a visually impaired person’s pedestrian experience with enough information so as to ease his movement from one location to another. Innovative interaction mechanisms have been developed in Mobile Vision to allow visually impaired persons to use the mobile phone. Using pre-loaded maps on the mobile device, environmental conditions and landmark information along their route are provided on the fly through simple explanatory voice cues. The application can advise the user where he/she is currently located and provide spoken directions to travel to a particular destination.