Outdoor navigation for blind and visually impaired people

At a time when GPS navigation in cities could deviate by up to 50 m, we collaborated with the Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted to explore how computer vision could enhance the safety and independence of visually impaired individuals.

Year: 2014
Client / Partners: EU project; Association of Societies of the Blind and Partially Sighted of Slovenia

In the ALICE project, we developed a pilot solution to assist visually impaired individuals with outdoor mobility. The project was initiated within the framework of a European tender and in close cooperation with the Association of Societies of the Blind and Partially Sighted of Slovenia for understanding user needs and testing.

Using computer vision recognition, we supplemented GPS navigation information, adding recognised environmental elements to location data. The mobile application guided the user verbally along pre-annotated paths in urban environments.

A brief summary of the findings:

• Key finding: Path annotation was mandatory. Computer vision was not yet reliable enough to detect unexpected obstacles and, with an unreliable GPS signal, provided insufficient information to safely guide a user through open, unpredictable spaces.
• GPS reliability at that time: Outdoors ~5 to 50 m. In practice, this meant that GPS could miss a street or/and direct the user into the middle of the road.

For Comland, the project also brought a profound experience of participating in inclusive development with users, and above all, an even greater awareness of the responsibility we, as a development team, have towards the users of our solutions.