Wearable Navigation Aids for Visually Impaired People Based on Vibrotactile Skin Stimuli

Abstract

Blind and visually impaired people have a reduced capacity to perceive their environment which also affects their mobility and orientation. In order to improve this capacity, we introduce an approach based on vibrotactile stimulation of skin receptors using ordinary small vibration motors which are widely used in mobile phones.

Four different prototypes of vibrating belt systems, worn by blindfolded people and guided by wireless transmitted navigation instructions from a second person to the prototypes, have been constructed and tested in a course with obstacles. The aim of this study was to test and compare different vibrotactile encodings of commands to guide blind people. The comparison of the prototypes led to the assumption that simple kept systems could be a better solution for the vibrotactile navigation instructions than more complex systems.