Skip to main content
Log in

A smartphone-based virtual white cane

  • Short Paper
  • Published:
Pattern Analysis and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The objective of our research was to develop assistive technology for visually impaired people, with a high appreciation for the human potential to achieve, to learn, and to achieve goals. In this document, we describe a virtual white cane made of a combination of a Smartphone and a laser pointer. In our device, the laser pointer beam reflection is captured by the Smartphone camera. The distance from the virtual white cane to the reflection is computed through active triangulation. Then, a personalized vibration, the magnitude of which corresponds to distance, is generated in the Smartphone. In this way, the users receive information that could prevent collisions with obstacles in the environment. Our contributions include the development of a virtual white cane around a Smartphone and other off-the-shelf accessories and a methodology to provide personalized vibratory feedback to the user. Our experiments show that to navigate, our instrument is better option, in terms of travel time, that the use of the hands. However, the travel time is still better using a traditional white cane than our instrument.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Adjouadi M (1992) A man-machine vision interface for sensing the environment. J Rehabil Res Dev 29(2):57–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Aguerrevere D, Choudhury M, Barreto A (2004) Portable 3D sound/sonar navigation system for blind individuals. In: International latin american and Caribbean conference for engineering and technology, pp 1–6

  3. Alwan A (2010) Action plan for the prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment, 2009–2013. World Health Organization

  4. Bouguet J (2011) Camera calibration toolbox for matlab. http://www.vision.caltech.edu/bouguetj/calib_doc/

  5. Bourbakis N, Ravraki D (1996) Intelligent assistants for handicapped people’s independence: case study. In: IEEE international joint symposia on intelligence and systems, pp 337–344

  6. Bouzit M, Chaibi A, De Laurentis K, Mavroidis C (2004) Tactile feedback navigation handle for the visually impaired. In: International mechanical engineering congress and exposition, pp 1–7

  7. Cardin S, Thalmann D, Vexo F (2007) A wearable system for mobility improvement of visually impaired people. Vis Comput 23(2):109–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Dakopoulos D, Bourbakis NG (2010) Wearable obstacle avoidance electronic travel aids for blind: a survey. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern Part C Appl Rev 40(1):25–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Danilov Y, Tyler M et al (2005) Brainport: an alternative input to the brain. J Integr Neurosci 4(4):537–550

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Farcy R, Leroux R, Jucha A, Damaschini R, Grégoire C, Zogaghi A (2006) Electronic travel aids and electronic orientation aids for blind people: technical, rehabilitation and everyday life points of view. In: Proceedings of conference and workshop on assistive technologies for people with vision and hearing impairments technology for inclusion

  11. Goldstein E (2010) Sensation and perception. Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont

  12. González-Mora J, Rodriguez-Hernandez A, Rodríguez-Ramos L, Díaz-Saco L, Sosa N (1999) Development of a new space perception system for blind people, based on the creation of a virtual acoustic space. In: Engineering applications of bio-inspired artificial neural networks. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 5805. Springer, pp 321–330

  13. Harris C, Stephens M (1988) A combined corner and edge detector. In: Alvey Vision Conference, Manchester, vol 15, pp 147–151

  14. Hesch J, Roumeliotis S (2010) Design and analysis of a portable indoor localization aid for the visually impaired. Int J Robotics Res 29(11):1400–1415

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Hoagland H (1930) The Weber–Fechner law and the all-or-none theory. J Gen Psychol 3(3):351–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Hub A, Diepstraten J, Ertl T (2004) Design and development of an indoor navigation and object identification system for the blind. In: Conference on computer and accessibility. ACM, New York, pp 147–152

  17. Ifukube T, Sasaki T, Peng C (1991) A blind mobility aid modeled after echolocation of bats. IEEE Trans Bio-med Eng 38(5):461–5

    Google Scholar 

  18. International Council of Ophthalmology (2002) Visual standards: aspects and ranges of vision loss with emphasis on population surveys. In: International congress of ophthalmology

  19. Johnson L, Higgins C (2006) A navigation aid for the blind using tactile-visual sensory substitution. In: IEEE international conference of the engineering in medicine and biology society, pp 6289–6292

  20. Kalman R (1960) A new approach to linear filtering and prediction problems. J Basic Eng (Series D) 82:35–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Manduchi R, Kurniawan S (2012) Assistive technology for blindness and low vision. CRC Press, Boca Raton

  22. Marston J, Bentzen B (2012) Assistive technology for blindness and low vision. In: Evaluating the effectiveness of assistive travel and wayfinding devices for persons who are blind or visually impaired. Taylor and Francis Group, LLC, PA, pp 133

  23. Mednieks Z, Dornin L, Meike B, Nakamura M (2011) Programming android. O’Reilly Media, Sebastopol

  24. Meers S, Ward K (2005) A substitute vision system for providing 3D perception and GPS navigation via electro-tactile stimulation. Perception

  25. Meijer P (1992) An experimental system for auditory image representations. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 39(2):112–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Montello D (1998) A new framework for understanding the acquisition of spatial knowledge in large-scale environments. spatial and temporal reasoning in geographic information systems, pp 143–154

  27. Pomerantz JR, Kubovy M (1986) Theoretical approaches to perceptual organization: simplicity and likelihood principles. In: Perceptual organization and cognition, vol 36. Wiley, pp 1–46

  28. Pradeep V, Medioni G, Weiland J (2010) A wearable system for the visually impaired. In: IEEE international conference of the engineering in medicine and biology society, pp 6233–6236

  29. Sainarayanan G, Nagarajan R, Yaacob S (2007) Fuzzy image processing scheme for autonomous navigation of human blind. Appl Soft Comput 7(1):257–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Shoval S, Borenstein J, Koren Y (1994) Mobile robot obstacle avoidance in a computerized travel aid for the blind. In: IEEE ionternational conference on robotics and automation, pp 2023–2028

  31. Stevens S (1957) On the psychophysical law. Psychol Rev 64(3):153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Swets J (2000) Better decisions through science. Sci Am 283(4):70–75

    Google Scholar 

  33. Synergyst. Global Smartphones Market Forecast (2011–2015) (2011) Technical report, market research

  34. Ulrich I, Borenstein J (2001) The GuideCane: applying mobile robot technologies to assist the visually impaired. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern Part A Syst Humans 31(2):131–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Yuan D, Manduchi R (2004) A tool for range sensing and environment discovery for the blind. In: IEEE computer vision and pattern recognition, pp 39–39

  36. Yuan D, Manduchi R (2005) Dynamic environment exploration using a virtual white cane. In: IEEE computer vision and pattern recognition, vol 1, pp 243–249

  37. Zelek J, Audette R, Balthazaar J, Dunk C (1999) A stereo-vision system for the visually impaired. Technical report, School of Engineering, University of Guelph

  38. Zhang Z (2000) A flexible new technique for camera calibration. IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell 22(11):1330–1334

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to Sarah Bruce and Paul Riley of the U.S. Peace Corps/Mexico for editing the document, and to the reviewers whose comments improved greatly the quality of our exposition. This work was partially supported by the Fomix CONACYT-DF under Grant No. 189005 and the Instituto Politcnico Nacional under Grant No. 20131832 for Joaqun Salas.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joaquín Salas.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Vera, P., Zenteno, D. & Salas, J. A smartphone-based virtual white cane. Pattern Anal Applic 17, 623–632 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10044-013-0328-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10044-013-0328-8

Keywords

Navigation