Visible Light Communications-Based Assistance System for the Blind and Visually Impaired: Design, Implementation, and Intensive Experimental Evaluation in a Real-Life Situation

Abstract

Severe visual impairment and blindness significantly affect a person’s quality of life, leading sometimes to social anxiety. Nevertheless, instead of concentrating on a person’s inability, we could focus on their capacities and on their other senses, which in many cases are more developed. On the other hand, the technical evolution that we are witnessing is able to provide practical means that can reduce the effects that blindness and severe visual impairment have on a person’s life. In this context, this article proposes a novel wearable solution that has the potential to significantly improve blind person’s quality of life by providing personal assistance with the help of Visible Light Communications (VLC) technology. To prevent the wearable device from drawing attention and to not further emphasize the user’s deficiency, the prototype has been integrated into a smart backpack that has multiple functions, from localization to obstacle detection. To demonstrate the viability of the concept, the prototype has been evaluated in a complex scenario where it is used to receive the location of a certain object and to safely travel towards it. The experimental results have: i. confirmed the prototype’s ability to receive data at a Bit-Error Rate (BER) lower than 10−7; ii. established the prototype’s ability to provide support for a 3 m radius around a standard 65 × 65 cm luminaire; iii. demonstrated the concept’s compatibility with light dimming in the 1–99% interval while maintaining the low BER; and, most importantly, iv. proved that the use of the concept can enable a person to obtain information and guidance, enabling safer and faster way of traveling to a certain unknown location. As far as we know, this work is the first one to report the implementation and the experimental evaluation of such a concept.