TRAVEL AID SYSTEM WITH
AUDIOTORY-MAP AND VIDEO PHONE FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED
Presenter(s)
Takafumi
Ienaga
Institute of Systems & Information Technologies/KYUSHU Street Address:
Day Phone: +81-92-852-3460
Fax: +81—92—852—3465
Email: ienaga@isit.or.jp
In
general, it is difficult for the visually impaired to go to an unfamiliar place
on their own. Some kinds of travel aid systems for them have been developed so
far (e.g. H. Mori, &
Proposing
System
The travel aid system for the visually impaired we propose consists of a system
provides an auditory map and a tele-support system with a video cellular phone.
First, the user gets the auditory map and records it into an IC recorder or
other devices. Next, the user repeatedly listens to the recorded information to
roughly grasp the route to the destination. Third, he or she walks the route by
following the instruction recorded in the auditory map. Through this procedure,
the visually impaired are able to get to even an unfamiliar place without any
special device or training. However, the auditory map does not address the
problems arose when the users lose their way or direction and they are not able
to continue to walk as instructed. In those cases, the users may request the
navi9ation to a remote supporter. A remote supporter identifies the user’s
position from transmitted images of the video cellular phone and position
information obtained by GPS and etc. And then, the supporter navigates the user
to the right point, with this navi9ation provided by a remote supporter, the
users are able to go back to the right point even if they lose their way or
direction and eventually gets to the final destination.
Experiment
In the experiment, the subjects carried two devices. One was an IC recorder to listen
to the recorded instruction in the auditory map and another was a video cellular
phone to be navigated by a remote supporter. In this experiment, the position
information of the subject was sent to the remote supporter by an assistant of
the experimenter. The route was an about 20-minute walk distance for the
sighted, and the subjects required 8 minutes and 20 seconds to listen to all
the recorded instructions in the auditory map. No subjects had walked the same
route before. Twelve subjects participated in the experiment, and three of whom
were completely blind. All subjects were able to walk by themselves with a
guide dog or a white cane. In the experiment, one subject used a guide dog and
the rest of them used white canes. At first, they listened to the recorded
instruction to roughly grasp the route as a whole, and next they walked the
route with listening to it again. The subjects supposed to use the negation
service provided by a remote supporter when they lose their ways or direction
and recognized that they were not able to continue to travel with only the
auditory map, or the experimenter suggested that the subject to be navigated by
a remote supporter in case that the subject largely deviated from the given
route. When the subject reached the destination or 45 minutes passed after the
start, the experiment finished.
As
the result of the experiment, one of the twelve subjects reached the
destination with only the auditory map within the given time, and eight did by
using the both of the auditory map and the navigation service, while three were
not able to get to the destination within the given time. The mean time for
those who arrived at the goal was 34 minutes and 21 seconds, which was an about
26-minute walk if the recorded guidance time, 8 minutes 20 seconds, was
excluded. It was almost the same as the time for the sighted. Those who reached
the goal within a given time used navigation services provided by a remote
supporter 1.6 times on average, while those who did not 2.3 times. In the
questionnaire after the experiment, eleven subjects gave the positive responses
to use this travel aid system. In this experiment, we designed the complicated
route with many narrow paths where it was hard to find intersections. If the
route was designed with bigger ‘Streets, the success rate to reach the
destination was expected to be hi9her than the result of this experiment. As
mentioned above, in this study, we verified that our travel aid system was effective
to assist the visually impaired to walk by themselves.
Conclusion
and Future Works
In this study, we proved that it was possible for the visually disabled to
reach an unknown destination with the travel aid system which consisted of the
auditory map and the navigation service provided by a remote supporter with the
video cellular phone. In the future woks, we will construct a personal auditory
map in accordance with individual’s characteristics.
Acknowledgement
A part of this research was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science, Grant—in-Aid for scientific Research (B(2)-16300192).
Reference
H. Mori,
European conference on Disability, virtual Reality and Assistive Technology,
p.p.
193-202, (1998).
Go to previous article
Go to next article
Return to 2006 Table of Contents