A pair of smartphone apps can guide people who are blind through unfamiliar buildings, even if their handset is tucked away in a pocket. The researchers behind the technology say its crucial advantage is that the tools require no costly infrastructure to be added to buildings.
at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his colleagues created two prototype wayfinding apps. Both use the motion sensors built into handsets and an AI to record the user鈥檚 movement through a building, unlike some existing apps that rely on the camera 鈥� which is less convenient for the user and makes them a potential target for thieves because they must hold their phone out in the open.
The first of the team鈥檚 apps relies on this spatial sensing and an uploaded map of the building to guide the user to a certain room or waypoint, giving navigation cues either through a headphone or by vibrations. The researchers have developed an online tool for people to submit maps of their buildings and they hope to automate that process with AI in future.
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The second app works in a similar way, but helps people leave the building after their appointment by recording their journey through the building, then replaying it backwards as instructions.
In experiments with seven testers who were blind, each carrying out six different tests for a total of 42 attempts, only six saw the user fail to reach their destination. Manduchi says that the results are promising and that the prototype system could be adapted for a real-world release relatively quickly.
Unlike other similar systems that use transmitting beacons, neither app requires a building鈥檚 owner to install and maintain any hardware. 鈥淎ny time you want to do an infrastructure change and somebody has to put things there, it鈥檚 a problem,鈥� says Manduchi. 鈥淪omebody has to sustain it, somebody has to pay. For your elementary school, for your doctor鈥檚 office, nobody鈥檚 going to do that. That costs money.鈥�
arXiv
