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A Navigation System for the Visually Impaired: A Fusion of Vision and Depth Sensor

For a number of years, scientists have been trying to develop aids that can make visually impaired people more independent and aware of their surroundings. Computer-based automatic navigation tools are one example of this, motivated by the increasing miniaturization of electronics and the improvemen...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kanwal, Nadia, Bostanci, Erkan, Currie, Keith, Clark, Adrian F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4745441/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27057135
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/479857
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author Kanwal, Nadia
Bostanci, Erkan
Currie, Keith
Clark, Adrian F.
author_facet Kanwal, Nadia
Bostanci, Erkan
Currie, Keith
Clark, Adrian F.
author_sort Kanwal, Nadia
collection PubMed
description For a number of years, scientists have been trying to develop aids that can make visually impaired people more independent and aware of their surroundings. Computer-based automatic navigation tools are one example of this, motivated by the increasing miniaturization of electronics and the improvement in processing power and sensing capabilities. This paper presents a complete navigation system based on low cost and physically unobtrusive sensors such as a camera and an infrared sensor. The system is based around corners and depth values from Kinect's infrared sensor. Obstacles are found in images from a camera using corner detection, while input from the depth sensor provides the corresponding distance. The combination is both efficient and robust. The system not only identifies hurdles but also suggests a safe path (if available) to the left or right side and tells the user to stop, move left, or move right. The system has been tested in real time by both blindfolded and blind people at different indoor and outdoor locations, demonstrating that it operates adequately.
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spelling pubmed-47454412016-04-07 A Navigation System for the Visually Impaired: A Fusion of Vision and Depth Sensor Kanwal, Nadia Bostanci, Erkan Currie, Keith Clark, Adrian F. Appl Bionics Biomech Research Article For a number of years, scientists have been trying to develop aids that can make visually impaired people more independent and aware of their surroundings. Computer-based automatic navigation tools are one example of this, motivated by the increasing miniaturization of electronics and the improvement in processing power and sensing capabilities. This paper presents a complete navigation system based on low cost and physically unobtrusive sensors such as a camera and an infrared sensor. The system is based around corners and depth values from Kinect's infrared sensor. Obstacles are found in images from a camera using corner detection, while input from the depth sensor provides the corresponding distance. The combination is both efficient and robust. The system not only identifies hurdles but also suggests a safe path (if available) to the left or right side and tells the user to stop, move left, or move right. The system has been tested in real time by both blindfolded and blind people at different indoor and outdoor locations, demonstrating that it operates adequately. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015 2015-08-18 /pmc/articles/PMC4745441/ /pubmed/27057135 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/479857 Text en Copyright © 2015 Nadia Kanwal et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Kanwal, Nadia
Bostanci, Erkan
Currie, Keith
Clark, Adrian F.
A Navigation System for the Visually Impaired: A Fusion of Vision and Depth Sensor
title A Navigation System for the Visually Impaired: A Fusion of Vision and Depth Sensor
title_full A Navigation System for the Visually Impaired: A Fusion of Vision and Depth Sensor
title_fullStr A Navigation System for the Visually Impaired: A Fusion of Vision and Depth Sensor
title_full_unstemmed A Navigation System for the Visually Impaired: A Fusion of Vision and Depth Sensor
title_short A Navigation System for the Visually Impaired: A Fusion of Vision and Depth Sensor
title_sort navigation system for the visually impaired: a fusion of vision and depth sensor
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4745441/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27057135
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/479857
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