The development of a pedestrian navigation aid for the blind

Abstract

An Electronic Travel Aid is a form of assistive technology having the purpose of enhancing mobility for blind individuals. This paper examines a pedestrian navigation system for the Blind, which is based on a microcontroller with synthetic speech output. This aid is a portable, self contained system that will allow blind people to travel without the assistance of guides. It is designed for a battery-powered portable model. In addition, it is focused on low power consumption, small size, lightweight, and easy manipulation. The proposed system provides information to the user about urban walking routes using spoken words to indicate what decisions to make.