An Haptic Display for Visually Impaired Pedestrian Navigation

Abstract

Sight is one of the major senses that allows people to travel safely, freely, and independently of others. In their daily life, visually impaired people are confronting challenging tasks such as reading or writing. Navigation and direction finding, particularly in the unfamiliar environment, are remaining as one of the main issues for visually impaired (VI) individuals. Several ways have been emerged to help VI orientation and mobility such as electronic orientation aids which can be further studied and developed. This work aims to improve VI navigation by proposing a new tactile interface that will be designed and implemented with the use of vibrators and Arduino board. The proposed interface targets to increase the quality of life and independence for VI. Also, evaluation performed with VI pedestrian will give us further information and knowledge regarding haptic perceptions and effectiveness of such interface and interaction technique.