Results of a National Survey of Electronic Travel Aid Use

1989 ◽  
Vol 83 (9) ◽  
pp. 449-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.B. Blasch ◽  
R.G. Long ◽  
N. Griffin-Shirley
Keyword(s):  
National Survey ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Laser Beams ◽  
Body Level ◽  
Impaired User ◽  
Electronic Travel Aids

Electronic travel aids (ETAs) emit laser beams or high-frequency auditory waves that are reflected from nearby objects. These reflections are received by the ETA and converted to signals that the visually impaired user can perceive and interpret. After reviewing the literature on ETAs, the authors present the results of their survey on the use of and the problems associated with four types of ETAs. They report that the participants in the survey associated aid use with more rapid travel and feelings of safety and confidence in traveling, and that the most frequently used ETAs were the Laser Cane and the Mowat Sensor. These aids were found to be most useful in detecting pedestrians, and obstacles at head and body level.

MAGIC-I as Assistance for the Visually Impaired People

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kavita Pandey ◽  
Dhiraj Pandey ◽  
Vatsalya Yadav ◽  
Shriya Vikhram
Keyword(s):  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Smart Phone ◽  
Emergency Situation ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Daily Life Activities ◽  
Best Friends ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
The World ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Impaired User

Background: According to the WHO report, around 4.07% of the world's population is visually impaired. About 90% of the visually impaired users live in the lower economic strata. In the fast moving technology, most of the invention misses the need of these people. Mainly the technologies were designed for mainstream people; visually impaired people always find an inability to access it. This inability arises primarily for reasons such as cost, for example, Perkins Brailler costs 80-248 dollars for the simple purpose of Braille input. Another major reason is the hassle of carrying the big equipment. Objective: Keeping all this in mind and making technology as their best friends, MAGIC-1 has been designed. The goal is to provide a solution in terms of an application, which helps the visually impaired user in their daily life activities. Method: The proposed solution assists visually impaired users through smart phone technology. If visually impaired users ever wished to have a touched guide into a smart phone, MAGIC-1 has the solution that consolidates all the important features in their daily activities. Results: The performance of the solution as a whole and its individual features in terms of usability, utility and other metrics, etc. has been tested with sample visually impaired users. Moreover, their performances in term of Errors per Word and Words per Minute have been observed. Conclusion: MAGIC-I, the proposed solution works as an assistant of visually impaired users to overcome their daily struggles and stay more connected to the world. A visually impaired user can communicate via their mobile devices with features like eyes free texting using braille, voice calling etc. They can easily take help in an emergency situation with the options of SOS emergency calling and video assistance.

Do we really need high frequency of physical activity to keep blood pressure at good levels? Results of the Brazilian national survey

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley S. Vale ◽  
Inácio Crochemore-Silva ◽  
A. L. B. Silveira ◽  
M. V. F. Rodrigues ◽  
C. S. Lopes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Blood Pressure ◽  
National Survey ◽  
High Frequency

A Survey of Recreation Personnel in Agencies and Schools for Blind and Visually Impaired People

1991 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-88
Author(s):  
I. Ludwig
Keyword(s):  
Continuing Education ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Employment Status ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Professional Affiliation ◽  
Blind And Visually Impaired ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Visually Impaired Persons

This article reports on a national survey of recreation personnel in agencies and schools for blind and visually impaired persons. The survey addressed the personnel's employment status, educational background and continuing education experiences, professional affiliation, and interest in networking with other recreation personnel who work with blind and visually impaired persons.

scholarly journals Current Use and Future Perspectives of Spatial Audio Technologies in Electronic Travel Aids

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Spagnol ◽  
György Wersényi ◽  
Michał Bujacz ◽  
Oana Bălan ◽  
Marcelo Herrera Martínez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visually Impaired ◽  
User Requirements ◽  
Spatial Audio ◽  
Audio Cues ◽  
Current State ◽  
Spatial Sound ◽  
Auditory Representation ◽  
Visually Impaired Persons ◽  
Electronic Travel Aids ◽  
Audio Technologies

Electronic travel aids (ETAs) have been in focus since technology allowed designing relatively small, light, and mobile devices for assisting the visually impaired. Since visually impaired persons rely on spatial audio cues as their primary sense of orientation, providing an accurate virtual auditory representation of the environment is essential. This paper gives an overview of the current state of spatial audio technologies that can be incorporated in ETAs, with a focus on user requirements. Most currently available ETAs either fail to address user requirements or underestimate the potential of spatial sound itself, which may explain, among other reasons, why no single ETA has gained a widespread acceptance in the blind community. We believe there is ample space for applying the technologies presented in this paper, with the aim of progressively bridging the gap between accessibility and accuracy of spatial audio in ETAs.

scholarly journals Cross-Modal Correspondences Enhance Performance on a Colour-to-Sound Sensory Substitution Device

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 337-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giles Hamilton-Fletcher ◽  
Thomas D. Wright ◽  
Jamie Ward
Keyword(s):  
Object Recognition ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
User Access ◽  
Visual Characteristics ◽  
Impaired User ◽  
Image Sonification

Visual sensory substitution devices (SSDs) can represent visual characteristics through distinct patterns of sound, allowing a visually impaired user access to visual information. Previous SSDs have avoided colour and when they do encode colour, have assigned sounds to colour in a largely unprincipled way. This study introduces a new tablet-based SSD termed the ‘Creole’ (so called because it combines tactile scanning with image sonification) and a new algorithm for converting colour to sound that is based on established cross-modal correspondences (intuitive mappings between different sensory dimensions). To test the utility of correspondences, we examined the colour–sound associative memory and object recognition abilities of sighted users who had their device either coded in line with or opposite to sound–colour correspondences. Improved colour memory and reduced colour-errors were made by users who had the correspondence-based mappings. Interestingly, the colour–sound mappings that provided the highest improvements during the associative memory task also saw the greatest gains for recognising realistic objects that also featured these colours, indicating a transfer of abilities from memory to recognition. These users were also marginally better at matching sounds to images varying in luminance, even though luminance was coded identically across the different versions of the device. These findings are discussed with relevance for both colour and correspondences for sensory substitution use.

scholarly journals Quantifying the impact on navigation performance in visually impaired: Auditory information loss versus information gain enabled through electronic travel aids

PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. e0196156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Kreilinger ◽  
Thomas Georgi ◽  
Gudrun Pregartner ◽  
Domagoj Ivastinovic ◽  
Tamara Pichler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Information Gain ◽  
Information Loss ◽  
Auditory Information ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Electronic Travel Aids

scholarly journals Multi Ultrasonic Electronic Travel Aids (MU-ETA) Sebagai Alat Bantu Penunjuk Jalan Bagi Tuna Netra

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Mujtahid Aktanto
Keyword(s):  
Error Rate ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
T Test ◽  
Electronic Travel Aids

AbstrakTujuan dari penulisan jurnal ini adalah untuk mendesain sebuah instrument berupa Electronic Travel Aids (ETA) yang dapat mendeteksi halangan pada 3 bagian tubuh sekaligus yaitu bagian kepala, dada dan kaki. ETA ini berbasis Mikrokontroler ATMEGA32 dan menggunakan sensor ultrasonik HC-SR04. Multi Ultrasonik Electronic Tavel Aids ini digunakan sebagai alat pemandu bagi penderita tuna netra. Dalam mengukur ketepatan jarak baca terhadap halangan, kalibrasi dari sensor ultrasonik HC-SR04 sangat diperlukan. Data yang telah di uji dari masing-masing sensor dihitung untuk mendapat hasil error rate dan standart deviasi. Dan terakhir, data-data tersebut diolah pada stastistik dan dihitung dengan kalkulasi menggunakan metode uji T-Test berpasangan agar mendapatkan hasil sesuai dengan jarak yang ada.Sesuai dengan hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa sensor HC-SR04 dapat diteima sebagai pengganti alat pengukuran jarak dikarenakan hasil pembacaan Error Rate dan standart deviasi.pada alat. Setelah sensor ultrasonic dapat diterima sebagai alat untuk mengukur jarak, baru dibuat logika output berdasarkan sensor yang ada agar dapat mengenali benda yang ada di depan.Kata kunci—3-5 mikrokontroler, ATMEGA32, Ultrasonik  Sensor, Tuna Netra, Visually Impaired, Electronic Tavel Aids(ETA) Halangan/Obstacle

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