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Different Approaches to Aiding Blind Persons in Mobility and Navigation in the “Naviton” and “Sound of Vision” Projects

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Mobility of Visually Impaired People

Abstract

In this chapter, we summarize several years of research efforts aimed at building ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) based systems for aiding the blind in travel and navigation at the Lodz University of Technology, mainly as part of the “Naviton” project (http://www.naviton.pl), from a Polish Ministry of Higher Education grant. We report on different approaches we undertook in these challenging goals which comprise the following prototype solutions: (1) sonified stereovision system for obstacle avoidance and environment imaging, (2) radio beacons for local navigation, (3) remote assistance system, (4) mobile navigation applications, (5) real-time tracking of public transport vehicles, (6) haptic imaging . We shortly describe these technologies and discuss user feedback from the trials of these technological aids. Finally, we point out the key objectives and first results of a Horizon 2020 project entitled “Sound of Vision: natural sense of vision through acoustics and haptics” (http://www.soundofvision.net) that started in 2015.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the National Centre for Research and Development of Poland grant no. NR02–0083–10 in years 2010–2013 and received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 643636 “Sound of Vision”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Electronics, Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland

    P. Strumillo, M. Bujacz, P. Baranski, P. Skulimowski, P. Korbel, M. Owczarek & K. Tomalczyk

  2. Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    A. Moldoveanu

  3. University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland

    R. Unnthorsson

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  1. P. Strumillo
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  2. M. Bujacz
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Correspondence to P. Strumillo .

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  1. Université de Rouen Normandie, Rouen, France

    Edwige Pissaloux

  2. Universidad Panamericana, Aguascalientes, Mexico

    Ramiro Velazquez

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Strumillo, P. et al. (2018). Different Approaches to Aiding Blind Persons in Mobility and Navigation in the “Naviton” and “Sound of Vision” Projects. In: Pissaloux, E., Velazquez, R. (eds) Mobility of Visually Impaired People. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54446-5_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54446-5_15

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