Technology-assisted white cane: evaluation and future directions

Abstract

BackgroundSeveral technology-assisted aids are available to help blind and visually impaired people perform their daily activities. The current research uses the state-of-the-art technology to enhance the utility of traditional navigational aids to produce solutions that are more reliable. In this regard, a white cane is no exception, which is supplemented with the existing technologies to design Electronic Travel Aids (ETAs), Electronic Orientation Aids (EOAs), and Position Locator Devices (PLDs). Although several review articles uncover the strengths and limitations of research contributions that extend traditional navigational aids, we find no review article that covers research contributions on a technology-assisted white cane. The authors attempt to fill this literature gap by reviewing the most relevant research articles published during 2010–2017 with the common objective of enhancing the utility of white cane with the existing technology.MethodsThe authors have collected the relevant literature published during 2010–17 by searching and browsing all the major digital libraries and publishers’ websites. The inclusion/exclusion criteria were applied to select the research articles that are relevant to the topic of this review article, and all other irrelevant papers were excluded. Among the 577 (534 through database searching and 43 through other sources) initially screened papers, the authors collected 228 full-text articles, which after applying exclusion/inclusion criteria resulted in 36 papers that were included in the evaluation, comparison, and discussion. This also includes research articles of commercially available aids published before the specified range.ResultsThe findings show that the research trend is shifting towards developing a technology-assisted white cane solution that is applicable in both indoor and outdoor environments to aid blind users in navigation. In this regard, exploiting smartphones to develop low-cost and user-friendly navigation solution is among the best research opportunities to explore. In addition, the authors contribute a theoretical evaluation framework to compare and evaluate the state-of-the-art solutions, identify research trends and future directions.DiscussionResearchers have been in the quest to find out ways of enhancing the utility of white cane using existing technology. However, for a more reliable enhancement, the design should have user-centric characteristics. It should be portable, reliable, trust-worthy, lightweight, less costly, less power hungry, and require minimal training with special emphasis on its ergonomics and social acceptance. Smartphones, which are the ubiquitous and general-purpose portable devices, should be considered to exploit its capabilities in making technology-assisted white cane smarter and reliable.

Low-Cost Open Source Ultrasound-Sensing Based Navigational Support for the Visually Impaired

“…In addition, there are sensory substitution products that have already been commercialized that surpass the abilities of conventional white canes. However, most of the commercially available sensory substitution products are not accessible to most people from developing countries as well as the poor in developed countries due to costs: (i) UltraCane ($807.35) [16], an ultrasonic-based assistive device with haptic feedback and the range of 1.5 to 4 meters; (ii) Miniguide Mobility Aid ($499.00) [17], a handheld device that uses ultrasonic echolocation to detect objects in front of a person in the range of 0.5 to 7 meters; (iii) LS&S 541035 Sunu Band Mobility Guide and Smart Watch ($373.75) [18] that uses sonar technology to provide haptic feedback regarding the user’s surroundings; (iv) BuzzClip Mobility Guide ($249.00) [19], a SONAR-based hinged clip which has three ranges of detection (1, 2, and 3 meters) and provides haptic feedback; (v) iGlasses Ultrasonic Mobility Aid ($99.95) [20] provides haptic feedback based on ultrasonic sensors with the range of up to 3 meters, (vi) Ray [21] complements the long white cane by detecting barriers up to 2.5 meters and announces them via acoustic signals or vibrations, (vii) SmartCane ($52.00 for India and $90.00 for other countries) [22,23] detects obstacles from knee to head height based on sonic waves and modulates the distance to barriers into intuitive vibratory patterns. It is thus clear that a low-cost sensor augmentation or replacement of the white cane with a sensory substitution device is needed.…”

A review of smartphone point‐of‐care adapter design

“…This section explains the methodology for the article selection process following some previous review strategies (eg, the works of Rateni et al, Khan et al, and Moher et al). The articles were found in the following platforms: Google Scholar, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, ACM Digital Library, ResearchGate, IEEE Xplore, PubMed, ACS, MDPI, Nature, and Springer.…”

Comparing Tactile to Auditory Guidance for Blind Individuals

“…Accordingly, we expect that, with sufficient practice, blind users would be able to integrate a tactile belt system seamlessly into their daily navigational activities. Ultimately, a tactile belt system may be combined with other advances, such as a technology-enhanced white cane (Khan et al, 2018), to form an integrated navigational assistance system.…”