Indoor Navigation by People with Visual Impairment Using a Digital Sign System

There is a need for adaptive technology to enhance indoor wayfinding by visually-impaired people. To address this need, we have developed and tested a Digital Sign System. The hardware and software consist of digitally-encoded signs widely distributed throughout a building, a handheld sign-reader ba...

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Published inPloS one Vol. 8; no. 10; p. e76783
Main Authors Legge, Gordon E., Beckmann, Paul J., Tjan, Bosco S., Havey, Gary, Kramer, Kevin, Rolkosky, David, Gage, Rachel, Chen, Muzi, Puchakayala, Sravan, Rangarajan, Aravindhan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 08.10.2013
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Adaptive systems
Adult
Aged
Architectural engineering
Blindness
Blindness - physiopathology
Blindness - rehabilitation
Cameras
Coding
Computer programs
Design
Digital imaging
Digital mapping
Electronics, Medical - instrumentation
Electronics, Medical - methods
Equipment Design
Feasibility studies
Female
Humans
Image processing
Image processing software
Impairment
Indoor navigation
Information retrieval
Infrared cameras
Infrared imagery
International conferences
Laboratories
Male
Middle Aged
Mobile communication systems
Mobile devices
Movement - physiology
Navigation behavior
Navigation systems
People with disabilities
Reproducibility of Results
Self-Help Devices - statistics & numerical data
Sensory Aids - statistics & numerical data
Signage
Software
Surveys and Questionnaires
Technology
Travel
User-Computer Interface
Visual impairment
Visually Impaired Persons - rehabilitation
Wayfinding
Young Adult
United States > US
Minnesota
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI10.1371/journal.pone.0076783

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Summary:There is a need for adaptive technology to enhance indoor wayfinding by visually-impaired people. To address this need, we have developed and tested a Digital Sign System. The hardware and software consist of digitally-encoded signs widely distributed throughout a building, a handheld sign-reader based on an infrared camera, image-processing software, and a talking digital map running on a mobile device. Four groups of subjects-blind, low vision, blindfolded sighted, and normally sighted controls-were evaluated on three navigation tasks. The results demonstrate that the technology can be used reliably in retrieving information from the signs during active mobility, in finding nearby points of interest, and following routes in a building from a starting location to a destination. The visually impaired subjects accurately and independently completed the navigation tasks, but took substantially longer than normally sighted controls. This fully functional prototype system demonstrates the feasibility of technology enabling independent indoor navigation by people with visual impairment.
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Conceived and designed the experiments: GEL PJB BST GH KK. Performed the experiments: PJB RG MC SP DR AR KK. Analyzed the data: GEL PJB BST RG MC AR. Wrote the manuscript: GEL PJB BST RG MC KK. Software and hardware design: GEL PJB BST SP GH KK DR.
Competing Interests: The research was funded by a National Institutes of Health Grant (NIH) awarded jointly to Advanced medical Electronics (AME) with Kevin Kramer as PI, the University of Minnesota (Gordon Legge, PI) and the University of Southern California (USC, with Bosco Tjan as PI). For administrative purposes, the primary recipient of the grant was AME, with the University of Minnesota and USC funded through subcontracts to AME. Three of the authors—Gary Havey, Kevin Kramer and David Rolkosky—performed contributions to the project as employees of AME. This funding mechanism does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0076783