A Smart Multisensor Approach to Assist Blind People in Specific Urban Navigation Tasks 一多重感測器協助盲人於城市中行走 Presenter ： I-Chung Hung Date ： 2010/11/17 B. Andò, Member, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL SYSTEMS AND REHABILITATION ENGINEERING, VOL. 16, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2008

Outline  Introduction  Overview of the Device Architecture  Preliminary Results and Conclusion  References

Introduction

Example  Jack lost his vision since a terrible traffic accident. He can talk and walk normally, but just can’t see anymore. Activity ： go to school on foot Context environment ： street, crossing place, … etc. Human skill ： see and walk Assistive technology ： long cane, electronic device, … etc.

Context environment Human Walk Assistive Technology Place home work space school community Environment alone with friends with strangers Condition light sound heat cold See → Signals → Reaction

Introduction  TO DATE, several aids have been developed to improve the life quality of blind people from the long cane to many electronic devices.  In order to assist blind pedestrians the following information is needed. location nature of obstacles boundaries of the path or travel surface spatial orientation

Purpose  Using a multi-sensor architecture and quite complex smart post-processing to provide the user with information useful to perform urban mobility tasks, such as human detection and walking in crowd conditions.  Low cost and smart algorithm.

Overview of the Device Architecture

Device Architecture  The device is made of two units, the multisensor probe and the processing unit. The multisensor probe has been implemented by a sonar module and an infrared motion sensor. The processing unit includes electronics for sensors, a microcontroller architecture for signal elaboration.

Device Architecture  The sonar module is a low-cost device assuring good performances in a range of 10m with a nominal accuracy less than 2%.

Device Architecture  Levels of alert can be interpreted as follow ： 1 = free to go, 2 = move slowly, 3 = reduce speed, 4 = stop, 5 = move to avoid collision.

Preliminary Results and Conclusion

Preliminary Results  Experiments were conducted both by experts and blind people in supervised mode.  A valuable behavior of the device was evidenced in the walking mode, especially for young and medium age people.

Conclusion  In a future version of the device, a tactile interface will be included.  The possibility for the user to choose the degree and the redundancy of the information provided by the device and the possibility to extend the multisensor approach to other purposes.

Reference

Lead Bricks  The size of lead brick is usually 25 cm x 25 cm.  There are two kinds of lead bricks.

Slope  According to the standard of architecture in Taiwan, the slope ≦ 1/12.  If the pitch under 75 cm, consider the table. Pitch (cm) Under 75 Under 50 Under 35 Under 25 Under 20 Under 12 Under 8 Under 6 slope1/101/91/81/71/61/51/41/3

Intersection Device

Taiwan patent - M  Publish ： 2010/08/21  Applicant ： Technology and Science Institute of Northern Taiwan.  IPC-A45B0/03 ： A cane combine with other device.  Total ： 194 items

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