A Precision Navigation System for People with a Visual Impairment

专为视力障碍人士设计的精准导航系统

• 批准号: 9126559
• 负责人: David A. Ross
• 金额: $ 24.8万
• 依托单位: ATLANTA RESEARCH & EDUCATION FDN, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9126559
• 关键词: Address; Algorithms; Attention; Biomechanics; Blindness; Body measure procedure; Canes; Cellular Phone; Communities; Computer software; Crowding; Data; Data Sources; Databases; Destinations; Development; Drops; Educational process of instructing; Electronic Mail; Elements; Environment; Evaluation; Eye diseases; Fright; Gait; Goals; Health; Hip region structure; Human; Improve Access; Information Systems; Knowledge; Literature; Locales; Location; Maps; Mediation; Mission; Modeling; Motion; Movement; Names; Navigation System; Neighborhoods; Outcome; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Persons; Population; Population Characteristics; Positioning Attribute; Public Health; Quality of life; Rehabilitation therapy; Research; Research Design; Research Support; Resolution; Resources; Route; Side; Solid; Somatotype; Source; Statistical Methods; Structure; Students; System; Technology; Testing; Time; Touch sensation; Travel; United States National Institutes of Health; Vision Disorders; Visual impairment; Walking; Work; Workplace; base; blind; crowdsourcing; digital; disability; foot; improved; innovation; instructor; kinematics; meter; new technology; primary outcome; programs; prototype; sensor; sight for the blind; tool; trafficking

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this proposal is to develop a precision navigation system for people with visual impairment. There is a technological gap between what can now be provided and what is needed. What is needed is "cane-touch" precision. The person needs to be guided close enough to specific locations to find it with a cane. Existing navigation systems employing the Global Positioning System (GPS) can only provide the name of the intersection being approached. The proposed research design is constructed around the hypothesis that the goal of precision guidance can be achieved by merging two types of navigation systems: (1) GPS and (2) Inertial Navigation. Inertial navigation uses sensors now contained in smart phones to track a person's location as s/he is walking toward a destination. Given the location of a destination, it can precisely guide the user there. But it is a short-range solution that loses precision past distances of 50 to 100 meters. GPS often has an "offset bias" error. In a particular locale it may be off by 10 meters to the north of the actual location. This offset bias may be stable for several blocks, and then shift over a fairly short walking distance. The working hypothesis is that cane-touch precision can be achieved by fusing inertial navigation data with GPS data using a data fusion algorithm. Such an algorithm uses statistical methods to merge from two sources to provide more accurate and reliable information than can be obtained from data source separately. There is also an information gap. Research has shown that current inertial navigation systems do not work well for persons with a visual impairment. The reason is that people walking with a cane have an atypical walking style that makes it difficult to track their footsteps. People with a visual impairment tend to walk in a tentative fashion, making sure there is solid ground beneath their foot before placing it down. Various types of body motion characteristic of this population have been shown to be indicative of a footstep. To this end, a motion analysis study for persons with visual impairment is proposed. The hypothesis is that data from this study will provide what is needed to track the movement of their feet, and thus the person's movement. Also needed is map information providing the exact location of accessible walking paths and crosswalks, etc. We will develop a crowd-source paradigm to populate a public database with such map data. The resultant navigation app will be implemented as an application (app) for a smart phone and evaluated by subjects who are visually impaired. The expected outcome is an app for smart phones that provides precision (cane-touch) navigational guidance to persons with visual impairment. This will be invaluable, providing them the ability to independently and safely navigate outdoor environments and find important environmental elements such as pedestrian push buttons, which are never in a standard location. It will also enhance the gait literature for this population.

 描述（由申请人提供）：该提案的目的是为视力障碍人士开发一种精确导航系统，目前所能提供的与所需要的“手杖触摸”之间存在技术差距。需要引导人们足够接近特定位置才能用拐杖找到它。现有的使用全球定位系统（GPS）的导航系统只能提供正在接近的交叉路口的名称。假设目标精确引导可以通过合并两种类型的导航系统来实现：(1) GPS 和 (2) 惯性导航使用智能手机中包含的传感器来跟踪一个人在走向目的地时的位置。目的地位置，可以精准引导用户 但它是一种短距离解决方案，超过 50 到 100 米的距离后，GPS 往往会出现“偏移偏差”误差，在特定区域，它可能会偏离实际位置 10 米。这种偏移偏差可能在几个街区内保持稳定，然后在相当短的步行距离内发生变化。工作假设是，可以通过使用这种算法将惯性导航数据与 GPS 数据融合来实现。合并两个来源的统计方法可以提供比单独从数据源获得的信息更准确和可靠的信息。 研究表明，当前的惯性导航系统对于视力障碍人士来说效果不佳。拄着拐杖行走的人有一种非典型的行走方式，这使得有视觉障碍的人往往会以试探性的方式行走，在放下拐杖之前要确保脚下有坚实的地面。该人群的身体运动特征已被证明是为此，提出了一项针对视力障碍者的运动分析研究，假设该研究的数据将提供跟踪他们的脚的运动所需的数据，因此也需要跟踪该人的运动。是提供无障碍步行道和人行横道等的确切位置的地图信息。我们将开发一种众包范例，用此类地图数据填充公共数据库。最终的导航应用程序将作为智能应用程序（应用程序）实现。电话并由目视受试者进行评估预期成果是一款智能手机应用程序，可为视力障碍人士提供精确（手杖触摸）导航指导，这将为他们提供独立、安全地导航户外环境并找到重要环境元素的能力。行人按钮永远不会处于标准位置，这也将增强步态文献。 这个人口。