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An efficient, dense and long-range marker system for the guidance of the visually impaired

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Abstract

In this paper, we address the problem of making a mobile/smartphone camera sensitive to distant fiducial markers. To this end, we carefully design a novel visual marker that is both dense and readable from large distances. The main novelty of the proposed marker is the combination of a quaternary color-based coding system with robust methods for reading the color patterns included in each frame once it is detected. These patterns include a CRC whose length grows linearly, whereas that of the message grows quadratically. Our experiments show that the proposed bundle marker-vision algorithm outperforms the alternatives in terms of distance and angle and also that it is very robust to changes in lighting conditions, thus making it a good intelligent system for guiding people with visual impairments in their day to day use of public transportation systems.

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Acknowledgements

This work is partially supported by the projects TIN2015-69077-P and RTI2018-096223-B-I00 of the Spanish Government and the grant INFO2016.08.ID+I.0019 from Instituto de Fomento de la Región de Murcia. In 2017, VisualTags obtained the XI Vodafone Connecting for Good award by Vodafone Foundation. The methods presented in this paper are protected by the patent P201631625. We also thank James Coughlan from SKERI (Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA) for his insights in the practical use of artificial markers by the visually impaired community.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mobile Vision Research Laboratory, University of Alicante, Ctra. San Vicente s/n, 03690, San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain

    Juan Manuel Sáez, Miguel Angel Lozano & Francisco Escolano

  2. Nuevos Sistemas Tecnológicos S.L., Calle Central, 10, 30100, Espinardo, Murcia, Spain

    Javier Pita Lozano

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  1. Juan Manuel Sáez
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  2. Miguel Angel Lozano
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Correspondence to Miguel Angel Lozano.

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Sáez, J.M., Lozano, M.A., Escolano, F. et al. An efficient, dense and long-range marker system for the guidance of the visually impaired. Machine Vision and Applications 31, 57 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00138-020-01097-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00138-020-01097-y

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