Blind Pedestrian Body-Worn Navigational Aid Based on Pedometry and Smart Intersection Connectivity
People often have difficulty navigating in unfamiliar environments and are increasingly relying on electronic means of navigation. Blind individuals have a greater difficulty when traveling in unfamiliar environments. Urban intersections in particular have a variety of configurations that are not evident to blind pedestrians nor included in digital maps. Further, while many current navigational aids for the blind rely exclusively on GPS, they are often inaccurate and can fail in GPS-denied environments, such as indoors or in urban canyons. This paper describes a human-computer system that incorporates two positioning systems into an integrated position estimate for use in aiding a blind pedestrian through tactile feedback. This system uses a six degree-of-freedom navigation solution from a pedometry system that is fused with GPS that could provide a positioning solution even when GPS fails. This more robust position is used for the user’s position on a map of known waypoints for travel. An iPhone application sends the desired location and receives information (signal phase and layout) from smart intersections utilizing Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC). When the user deviates from the desired path, vibrations from four DC motors indicate the correct direction to turn. The ability of the system to guide the user is compared over a test route with the coordinates of the map to determine the drift of the user from the path. The paper provides preliminary experimental results which assess the degree that this proof-of-concept system can adequately guide a sighted user to a desired location.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB15 Standing Committee on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
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Corporate Authors:
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001 -
Authors:
- Rose, Christopher
- Pierce, Daniel
- Gao, Song
- Cofield, Robert
- Bevly, David M
- Bishop, Richard
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
- Date: 2016
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; References;
- Pagination: 15p
- Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Blind persons; Connectivity; Intelligent transportation systems; Intersections; Navigational aids; Pedestrian movement
- Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01589754
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 16-5690
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Feb 3 2016 12:10PM