Navigation for Visually Impaired Using Haptic Feedback

Smartphones have become commodity tools and exist in large multiple in all parts of the population. The typical use of navigation applications focus on aiding users with no impairments. Guidance applications with enhancing features, and facilitating for i.e. people with visual impairments, focus on voice-based feedback. In this paper we focus on the use of haptic feedback as a tool and guidance for navigation, through utilising the vibration mechanism available in mobile phones. Through the development of a prototype application we illustrate how haptic feedback can be used to guide users in cases of visual impairment or hindrance. The preliminary results display a novel contribution to multi-modal navigation and exemplifies active use of receptors for smartphone feedback interpretation.