Real-time assistance prototype — A new navigation aid for blind people
- 1 November 2010
- conference paper
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- No. 1553572X,p. 1173-1178
Abstract
This paper presents a new prototype for being used as a travel aid for blind people. The system is developed to complement traditional navigation systems such as white cane and guide dogs. The system consists of two stereo cameras and a portable computer for processing the environmental information. The aim of the system is to detect the static and dynamic objects from the surrounding environment and transform them into acoustical signals. Through stereophonic headphones, the user perceives the acoustic image of the environment, the volume of the objects, moving object direction and trajectory, its distance relative to the user and the free paths in a range of 5m to 15m. The acoustic signals represent short train of delta sounds externalized with non-individual Head-Related Transfer Functions generated in an anechoic chamber. Experimental results show that users were able to control and navigate with the system safety both in familiar and unfamiliar environments.Keywords
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