Navigation aid for the blind

AudiNect Project: this project is focused on the implementation of a novel tool for the autonomous navigation of blind people, in order to overcome some criticalities of the classic ones, based on sonar, infrared, GPS or RFID technique. The tool proposed here exploits the sense of hearing. Note that, this sense is very developed in subjects with visual impairment. AudiNect can be considered as a "portable sonar", signaling by means of acoustic feedback the presence of obstacles along a particular path that an impaired person needs to avoid. In particular, the depth data are provided as a Depth Map using the Microsoft Kinect. Then, the data is processed in order to encode a mapping of the data into properly acoustic feedback (Fig. 1), easily understandable by the user, allowing to search for free routes.

The software is implemented using Processing, whereas the acoustic feedback is generated using PureData. Processing is able to interact with Kinect through Simple OpenNI library, and communicates by means of OSCp5 library.

 

 

FIGURE 1. Example of acoustic signals used for training the subject in order to test AudiNect system.

 

The system was tested on blindfolded sighted individuals. The related tests have produced satisfactory results on the basis of learning curves, showing a rapid adaptation of the individuals to the proposed method. This suggest that the technology is well integrated with the human cognitive processes. Indeed, AudiNect lets the user to easily identify the best free path.

BrailNect Project: this project represents a support for the above mentioned AudiNect (Fig. 2). The system takes information from the surrounding environment by means of a Kinect, and provides feedback using a dedicated haptic display (an electromechanical device).

 

FIGURE 2. Complete scheme of the whole system AudiNect - BrailNect.

 

 

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

JOURNALS

AudiNect: An Aid for the Autonomous Navigation of Visually Impaired People, Based On Virtual Interface   Link 

Mario Salerno, Marco Re, Alessandro Cristini, Gianluca Susi, Marco Bertola, Emiliano Daddario, Francesca Capobianco
2013 Int. J. of Human Computer Interaction (IJHCI), Vol. 4, Issue 1, Feb. 2013, pp. 25-33. ISSN:2180-1347. 

 

CONFERENCE PAPERS 

A low-cost Indoor and Outdoor terrestrial autonomous navigation model
Gianluca Susi, Alessandro Cristini, Mario Salerno, Emiliano Daddario
2014 IEEE 22nd Telecommunications Forum TELFOR, 25-27 Nov 2014, Belgrade, Serbia, pp. 675-678. ISBN:978-1-4799-6190-0. DOI:10.1109/TELFOR.2014.7034499. IEEE CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS.