Design and Construction of Electronic Aid for Visually Impaired People

The NavGuide is a novel electronic device to assist visually impaired people with obstacle free path-finding. The highlight of the NavGuide system is that it provides simplified information on the surrounding environment and deduces priority information without causing information overload. The priority information is provided to the user through vibration and audio feedback mechanisms. The proof-of-concept device consists of a low power embedded system with ultrasonic sensors, vibration motors, and a battery. To test the effectiveness of the NavGuide system in daily-life mobility of visually impaired people, we performed an evaluation using 70 blind people of the "school & home for the blind." All evaluations were performed in controlled, real-world test environments with the NavGuide and traditional white cane. The evaluation results show that NavGuide is a useful aid in the detection of obstacles, wet floors, and ascending staircases and its performance is better than that of a white cane.