Indoor navigation for blind and visually impaired people

At a time when GPS navigation in cities could be off by as much as 50 m, and indoor navigation relied on WiFi transmitters, we worked with the Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired to assess how AI (computer vision) could increase the safety and independence of people with visual impairments.

Year: 2016
Client / partners: EU project; Association of Societies of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Slovenia

In the FIONA project, we developed a pilot solution to support people with visual impairments while walking indoors. The project was created under a European tender, in collaboration with the Slovenian Association of Societies of the Blind and Visually Impaired, so the entire development was focused on users’ real needs.

We developed an interface for navigating blind and visually impaired people in indoor spaces where GPS did not work. We paired image recognition from a mobile phone camera with visual annotation data. A voice interface guided the user along the route.

In brief:

• Key finding: Route annotation was mandatory at the time; computer vision was not yet reliable enough to detect unexpected obstacles.
• GPS reliability at the time: It did not work indoors; visual annotators were used.