An indoor navigation architecture using variable data sources for blind and visually impaired persons

Abstract

-Contrary to outdoor positioning and navigation systems, there isn't a counterpart global solution for indoor environments. Usually, the deployment of an indoor positioning system must be adapted case by case, according to the infrastructure and the objective of the localization. A particularly delicate case is related with persons who are blind or visually impaired. A robust and easy to use indoor navigation solution would be extremely useful, but this would also be particularly difficult to develop, given the special requirements of the system that would have to be more accurate and user friendly than a general solution. This paper presents a contribute to this subject, by proposing a hybrid indoor positioning system adaptable to the surrounding indoor structure, and dealing with different types of signals to increase accuracy. This would permit lower the deployment costs, since it could be done gradually, beginning with the likely existing Wi-Fi infrastructure to get a fairy accuracy up to a high accuracy using visual tags and NFC tags when necessary and possible.

Review of Navigation Assistive Tools and Technologies for the Visually Impaired

“…This real-time technology alerts the visually impaired to any dynamic or static obstacles within a range of meters; it works without smartphones and uses a camera to detect background motion. This system requires no previous knowledge of the obstacle size, position, or shape [ 35 ]. While the camera-based image processing system is a good choice, its drawbacks are its high processing power, which makes it costly and challenging to use.…”

Design and Experimental Validation of an Augmented Reality System With Wireless Integration for Context Aware Enhanced Show Experience in Auditoriums

“…In [25], a diversified shared latent variable model is proposed to use the availability of Wi-Fi for location. Reference [26] explores the idea of navigation by means of a hybrid system, using different signals to increase accuracy due to the difficulty of localization in indoor environments. In [27], an assistance application is developed that uses MEMS (microelectromechanical system) sensors from a Smartphone.…”

An Extended Usability and UX Evaluation of a Mobile Application for the Navigation of Individuals with Blindness and Visual Impairments Outdoors—An Evaluation Framework Based on Training

“…Different types of sensors embedded on smartphones are utilized in [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] to record real-world environment data and, subsequently, employ the available smartphone processors to interpret the data and signal events.…”