Design and development of multisensory smart assistive technology for blind persons
TL;DR: In this preliminary approach, various possibilities to develop multisensory network based on 'Inter of Things' have been proposed, which not only targets technical complications associated with available technologies but also introduces inexpensive and user-friendly applications which can easily be employed to provide comfort.
Abstract: The world over, prevailing technologies to assist physically challenged people are either complex or available at high cost. The recent development in the medical world, however, claim to facilitate comfort and make their life autonomously operational but lack of information, training, and functional intricacies often lead to discouraging users. This paper presents a comprehensive study of an existing system called 'Internet of Things' (ioT); this system is a programmable well-synchronized network of different electronic devices, sensors, mechanical & digital machines and highly active communication network. IoT is used to provide assistance to visually challenged (blind) people and help to extend their self-reliance not only in the known environment but also unknown places would become easily accessible to them. In this preliminary approach, various possibilities to develop multisensory network based on 'Inter of Things' have been proposed. This approach not only targets technical complications associated with available technologies but also introduces inexpensive and user-friendly applications which can easily be employed to provide comfort.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors systematically assess, analyze, and identify the primary studies in this specialized field and provide an overview of the trends and empirical evidence in the proposed field, and suggest a new and enhanced smart assistant application accordingly to ensure safety and accurate guidance of the BVIPs.
Abstract: Over the last few decades, the development in the field of navigation and routing devices has become a hindering task for the researchers to develop smart and intelligent guiding mechanism at indoor and outdoor locations for blind and visually impaired people (BVIPs). The existing research need to be analysed from a historical perception including early research on the first electronic travel aids to the use of modern artificial vision models for the navigation of BVIPs. Diverse approaches such as: e-cane or guide dog, infrared-based cane, laser based walker and many others are proposed for the navigation of BVIPs. But most of these techniques have limitations such as: infrared and ultrasonic based assistance has short range capacities for object detection. While laser based assistance can harm other people if it directly hit them on their eyes or any other part of the body. These trade-offs are critical to bring this technology in practice.To systematically assess, analyze, and identify the primary studies in this specialized field and provide an overview of the trends and empirical evidence in the proposed field. This systematic research work is performed by defining a set of relevant keywords, formulating four research questions, defining selection criteria for the articles, and synthesizing the empirical evidence in this area. Our pool of studies include 191 most relevant articles to the proposed field reported between 2011 and 2020 (a portion of 2020 is included). This systematic mapping will help the researchers, engineers, and practitioners to make more authentic decisions for finding gaps in the available navigation assistants and suggest a new and enhanced smart assistant application accordingly to ensure safety and accurate guidance of the BVIPs. This research work have several implications in particular the impact of reducing fatalities and major injuries of BVIPs.
47 citations
20 Jan 2021
TL;DR: In this article, a few of the many applications of IoT in assistive devices were analyzed and discussed to examine the existing prototypes that have been developed for each of them, and the future scope of the same is also examined.
Abstract: In the 21st century, all electronic devices have the capability to communicate and exchange data and resources through the technology known as the Internet of Things (IoT). With the number of IoT-enabled devices growing at an exponential rate, it has limitless prospects to augment the standard of living for the differently-abled as it has great potential to significantly enhance the quality of all kinds of assistive devices. In this article, a few of the many applications of IoT in assistive devices were analyzed and discussed to examine the existing prototypes that have been developed for each of them. The applications discussed here are in the fields of navigation, communication, healthcare, and education for disabled people, and the future scope of the same is also examined.
13 citations
01 Aug 2020
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of the Mulsemedia field principles, reported applications, and future potentials in a manner adequate for readers from technical as well as medical backgrounds is presented.
Abstract: Recent technological advancements have brought great focus on the use of Multiple-Sensorial Media (Mulsemedia) in various application fields. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Mulsemedia is the great engagement and immersive user experience it offers through the stimulation of more human senses than just audiovisual content (Multimedia). The paper aims to breakdown the Mulsemedia field principles, reported applications, and future potentials in a manner adequate for readers from technical as well as medical backgrounds. The paper starts with a review of Mulsemedia history and beginning of its growth. Later, fundamental Mulsemedia system architecture and components are presented. Moreover, the paper presents a description of the manner in which Mulsemedia systems mimic, stimulate and regenerate sensations reflecting the five human senses. This is followed by a review of several research and developmental studies that made use of Mulsemedia technologies in a wide range of applications with emphasis on its unique features and advantages. Focus is then turned onto a review of studies that reported using Mulsemedia in rehabilitation technologies, assistive technologies and several disability needs. The paper concludes with the most common recommendations found in the reviewed works, which can be summarized in the huge future potentials of research tackling the implementation and experimentation of Mulsemedia technologies for solving disability problems. The latter fact, offers researchers and therapists boundless choices when it comes to designing or applying new diagnostic, therapeutic or assistive methods for people with disabilities.
References
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15 Oct 2007
TL;DR: This remote study used an advanced web proxy that leverages AJAX technology to record both the pages viewed and the actions taken by users on the web pages that they visited and describes quantitative differences in the browsing behavior of blind and sighted web users.
Abstract: Web browsing is inefficient for blind web users because of persistent accessibility problems, but the extent of these problems and their practical effects from the perspective of the user has not been sufficiently examined. We conducted a study in situ to investigate the accessibility of the web as experienced by web users. This remote study used an advanced web proxy that leverages AJAX technology to record both the pages viewed and the actions taken by users on the web pages that they visited. Our study was conducted remotely over the period of one week, and our participants used the assistive technology and software to which they were already accustomed and had already configured according to preference. These advantages allowed us to aggregate observations of many users and to explore the practical effects on and coping strategies employed by our blind participants. Our study reflects web accessibility from the perspective of web users and describes quantitative differences in the browsing behavior of blind and sighted web users.
154 citations
"Design and development of multisens..." refers background in this paper
...Semary, Sondos in which they explain different techniques for image foreground segmentation, histogram enhancement and region of interest (ROI) extraction [10]....
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TL;DR: It may be some 18 months before it is known who can and who can't derive some benefit in the form of increased mobility, since it is not yet certain how valuable the device will be to blind people.
115 citations
TL;DR: A new haptic interface to navigate the visually impaired called Force Blinker 2, using rotating weights and repulsive magnets to reduce the force generated in the opposite direction to the traveling direction which caused false recognition in the previous system, “Force Blinker 1.”
Abstract: In this paper, we develop a new haptic interface called “Force Blinker 2” to navigate the visually impaired. In Force Blinker 2, rotating weights and repulsive magnets are used to reduce the force generated in the opposite direction to the traveling direction, which caused false recognition in the previous system, “Force Blinker 1.” In Force Blinker 2 [diameter: 30 (mm), weight: 365 (g)], based on the balance of the centrifugal force of the weight and repulsive force of permanent magnets, the rotational radius of the weight varies depending on the velocity of the rotational weight. First, from a mechanical and control performance perspective, it has been confirmed using an encoder and high-speed camera that the rotational angle, velocity, and weight position are well controlled. Second, ten visually impaired subjects evaluated Force Blinker 2 by comparing it with Force Blinker 1, a fixed radius type interface. The directions presented by Force Blinker 2 were correctly recognized at a rate of approximately 85%, which is about a 10% improvement over the rate achieved by Force Blinker 1. This means the effect of decreasing the force in the opposite direction to the traveling direction on recognition thereof yields about a 10% improvement in recognition performance. In the future, we intend to integrate a route decision system with a cane containing the built-in haptic interface.
47 citations
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: This chapter presents the main trends in corpus-based speech synthesis, assuming a stream of phonemes and prosodic target as input, and emphasizes the engineering trade-offs that arise when designing such systems.
Abstract: In this chapter, we present the main trends in corpus-based speech synthesis, assuming a stream of phonemes and prosodic target as input. From the early diphone-based speech synthesizers to the state-of-the art unit-selection-based synthesizers, to the promising statistical parametric techniques, we emphasize the engineering trade-offs that arise when designing such systems.
37 citations