Mobility Aid For The Blind

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Mobility Aid For The Blind

• By Amir Gonnen

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The oldest aids

• Walking Cane
• Guide dog
• Problems
• Skills and Training phase
• Range
• Very little information conveyed

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A Technological Solution
Sensor
Computer
Output Device
Information about the environment
Digital Processing
Perceptual input perceived by the blind
This is where Im going to focus
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Recent Developments

• Soundscapes from The vOICe
• Stereo vision system for the Visually Impaired,
  University of Guelph, Canada
• The NavBelt
• The GuideCane

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The vOICe
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Stereo Vision
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The NavBelt
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The GuideCane
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Problems

• Too much information
• Missing sub-conscious vision processes
• Interpretation of a continuous 2D signal into a
  set of recognizable objects in a 3D space
• Movement velocity and direction

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Solution

• Emulating some of the sub-conscious processes in
  a computer
• Describe the world as a set of objects in a 3D
  space

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Intro to the Simulation
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Do We Get A Better Perception?

• The Simulation
• A 3D room with several objects
• Each object has its own sound
• The sound is located at the object
• Stereo sound ? the direction of the object
• Volume ? How far is the object
• The beat scanner
• divides the field view into sectors
• More accurate perceptual direction

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More About the Simulation

• The simulation solves several problems
• How to separate sounds of different objects, so
  that not all objects will be heard at once ?
• How to give a good indication of objects type,
  direction and distance at the same time ?
• Tradeoff between Resolution in Time and in Space.

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Experiment

• Let the subject close her eyes and guess which
  object is visible, its direction and its
  distance.
• Results
• Recognition was correct in 80-90 of the cases.
• Notable improvement over time.

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Experiment Video
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Conclusion

• Still a lot of work to be done
• Computer vision how do we recognize objects on
  3D space using a raw 2D signal ?
• How do we assign sounds to different objects ?
• How much information can be perceived using sound
  in a given time frame ?
• Real progress could be achieved when we
  understand and able to emulate the cognitive
  processes of human vision