Correlation Between Types of Obstacles and Stress Level of Blind People in Outdoor Navigation

Abstract

Getting around independently on a daily basis is a challenge for blind people. Indeed, when walking outdoors, blind people must avoid many obstacles to reach their destination safely. The difficulty comes from the great variety of the configuration of the environment, with obstacles that can be static or dynamic, and varying levels of danger. Even if the blind person is already familiar with the environment in which they move, the inherent dynamics of the many objects and actors in the environment are still stressful. This article tackles the question of whether there is a link between physiological stress signals and the obstacles that blind users face when navigating paths and routes in daily life. We designed and proposed two prototypes using biological sensors connected to a cane for blind people to collect data in several scenarios. Methods and analysis that were applied on the collected data in order to detect stress will be discussed along with all the results achieved. This work shows that stress can be identified and detected when a blind person is navigating a path, and even that the stress factors causing this stress can be related to obstacles along the path.