Insights on Assistive Orientation and Mobility of People with Visual Impairment Based on Large-Scale Longitudinal Data

Abstract

Assistive applications for orientation and mobility promote independence for people with visual impairment (PVI). While typical design and evaluation of such applications involves small-sample iterative studies, we analyze large-scale longitudinal data from a geographically diverse population. Our publicly released dataset from iMove, a mobile app supporting orientation of PVI, contains millions of interactions by thousands of users over a year. Our analysis: (i) examines common functionalities, settings, assistive features, and movement modalities in iMove dataset, and (ii) discovers user communities based on interaction patterns. We find that the most popular interaction mode is passive, where users receive more notifications, often verbose, while in motion and perform fewer actions. The use of built-in assistive features such as enlarged text indicate a high presence of users with residual sight. Users fall into three distinct groups: C1) users interested in surrounding points of interest, C2) users interacting in short bursts to inquire about current location, and C3) users with long active sessions while in motion.

Augmented Reality Glasses as an Orientation and Mobility Aid for People with Low Vision: a Feasibility Study of Experiences and Requirements

“…To overcome the limitations of traditional mobility aids, many technological aids have been proposed to support mobility. Using a wide range of sensors such as ultrasonic sensors s [67,82,83], depth sensors [15,38,69], cameras [83,86,87], RFID tags [2,29], Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons [26], GPS [41], these systems assist users with wayfinding [1,26,52], obstacle avoidance [15,38,43,67,69,86], or both [29,41,81,83,87]. These aids convey information to users via different modalities: auditory [1,15,29,82,86] and vibrotactile [4,52,69,74].…”

Airport Accessibility and Navigation Assistance for People with Visual Impairments

“…There are several GPS-based navigation systems for outdoor environments designed for visually impaired people [8,22,34]. Although widespread solutions are still not a reality indoors, there are several eforts to support indoor localization and blind navigation assistance [17,57].…”

Research to Market Transition of Mobile Assistive Technologies for People with Visual Impairments

“…The analysis of this data shows that 44% of the users use accessibility tools and hence have a VI. These users use the app approximately four times more than others, and divide in four different user clusters [15,14]. We designed the app for users that want to be updated about their position while moving.…”

“…Indeed there are many associations for people with VI that aggregate the target users and other stakeholders, and can help distributing the AT knowledge. Online social networking is also common, including online discussion groups (like VIPhone 12 ), online AT directories 13 and podcasts 14 . Leveraging the strong connectivity of the fnal users can help to reach more users, promote the product and reduce advertising costs.…”