Technological Opportunity Analysis: Assistive Technology for Blind and Visually Impaired People

As life expectancy increases, the number of people who suffer from blind and visual impairment due to presbyopia is gradually increasing. Assistive device systems have been used to overcome various physical, social, infrastructure, and accessibility barriers. As technology has advanced, the scope of assistive technologies has been expanded. Therefore, we explored technological opportunities in assistive technology for the blind and visually impaired to establish a strategy for the technology competition in the near future. Firstly, the patent vacuum is detected by generating the patent map based on generative topographic mapping (GTM). Secondly, social network analysis is applied to identify the relationship between patent vacuums and occupied grid points in the patent map. Finally, the technology activity index and technology impact index are considered at quantitative and qualitative levels. Consequently, it was identified that wearable devices, including the road situation signal acquisition module and data acquisition process control module, could be occupied in the future. This study can provide practical ideas for research and development (R&D) in the field of assistive devices for the blind and visually impaired. In addition, this study can be an ample source for decision/policy makers to project new contents.

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Wearable Urban Mobility Assistive Device for Visually Impaired Pedestrians Using a Smartphone and a Tactile-Foot Interface

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21165274 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (16) ◽

pp. 5274

Author(s):

Ricardo Tachiquin ◽

Ramiro Velázquez ◽

Carolina Del-Valle-Soto ◽

Carlos A. Gutiérrez ◽

Miguel Carrasco ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Assistive Technology ◽

Visually Impaired ◽

Assistive Device ◽

Urban Mobility ◽

Urban Settings ◽

Blind And Visually Impaired ◽

Outdoor Environments

This paper reports on the progress of a wearable assistive technology (AT) device designed to enhance the independent, safe, and efficient mobility of blind and visually impaired pedestrians in outdoor environments. Such device exploits the smartphone’s positioning and computing capabilities to locate and guide users along urban settings. The necessary navigation instructions to reach a destination are encoded as vibrating patterns which are conveyed to the user via a foot-placed tactile interface. To determine the performance of the proposed AT device, two user experiments were conducted. The first one requested a group of 20 voluntary normally sighted subjects to recognize the feedback provided by the tactile-foot interface. The results showed recognition rates over 93%. The second experiment involved two blind voluntary subjects which were assisted to find target destinations along public urban pathways. Results show that the subjects successfully accomplished the task and suggest that blind and visually impaired pedestrians might find the AT device and its concept approach useful, friendly, fast to master, and easy to use.

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Assistive Technologies as a Search Tool for the Demanded Profile of Special Library

Bibliotekovedenie [Library and Information Science (Russia)] ◽

10.25281/0869-608x-2021-70-2-135-147 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 70 (2) ◽

pp. 135-147

Author(s):

Yuri Y. Lesnevsky

Keyword(s):

Visually Impaired ◽

Vision Loss ◽

Assistive Technologies ◽

Modern World ◽

High Tech ◽

Related Field ◽

Blind And Visually Impaired ◽

Applied Development ◽

Special Library ◽

Almost All

Digital transformation of the modern world requires any person, including people with partial or complete vision loss, to have new competencies in organizing their own lives. The share of high-tech services is growing in almost all areas of library and information activities.The process of inclusion of visually impaired people in the world of new opportunities is directly related to the formation of the image of socially active special library. The author analyzes the management decisions and development of the Novosibirsk Regional Special Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired as a consumer and participant of the intersectoral and interdepartmental market of rehabilitation industry products. The article reveals the role of assistive (auxiliary) technologies in the expansion of a number of educational services for the interested social and professional groups of the population.The empirical basis of the article is the results of the information and applied development of the assistive technology sphere by the specialists of the Novosibirsk Regional Special Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Various social, technical, regulatory and economic aspects have defined the development of the institution over a long period of time. The interdisciplinary nature of the proposed method involves the use of advanced assistive technologies as the basis for expanding the services of special library.The article considers the proactive approach that takes into account the priorities of the readership as an actual and effective way to develop a system of special library and information services. The author proposes and approves as innovation the idea of using the achievements of the related field of activity — accessibility technologies. Educational and training activities of the library in this context become a targeted tool for informing and motivating specialists of various branches. The article shows the need for additional efforts to organize and coordinate the work in the conditions of different levels of competence of specialists. Advanced development of assistive technologies allows expanding the range of users.

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A Guide to Assistive Technology for Teachers in Special Education

Communication Technology for Students in Special Education and Gifted Programs ◽

10.4018/978-1-60960-878-1.ch009 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 105-118 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Harris Wang

Keyword(s):

Special Education ◽

Distance Learning ◽

Assistive Technology ◽

Learning Disability ◽

Visually Impaired ◽

Assistive Technologies ◽

The Internet ◽

Web Based ◽

The Right ◽

Hearing Difficulties

Everyone has the right to learn and to succeed in education. For people with certain disabilities, learning can be a challenging task, and proper use of certain assistive technologies can significantly ease the challenge, and help the learners to succeed. For teachers in special education, knowing existing assistive technology is an important step towards the proper use of those technologies and success in special education. This chapter provides a guide for teachers about assistive technology and its uses in special education. Assistive technology for people with learning difficulties, assistive technology for the visually impaired, and assistive technology for people with hearing difficulties will be discussed. Since online learning and the Internet are becoming trends in distance education, this chapter will focus on assistive technologies for Web-based distance learning, including assistive technologies for better human-computer interaction. Selecting more appropriate assistive technology for a given learner with a certain learning disability, among many choices, will be discussed.

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Indoor Navigation Aid Systems for the Blind and Visually Impaired Based on Depth Sensors

Examining Optoelectronics in Machine Vision and Applications in Industry 4.0 - Advances in Computational Intelligence and Robotics ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-6522-3.ch007 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 187-223

Author(s):

Fernando Merchan ◽

Martin Poveda ◽

Danilo E. Cáceres-Hernández ◽

Javier E. Sanchez-Galan

Keyword(s):

Deep Learning ◽

Visually Impaired ◽

Indoor Navigation ◽

Assistive Technologies ◽

Microsoft Kinect ◽

Depth Sensors ◽

Blind And Visually Impaired ◽

Recent Developments ◽

Depth Vision

This chapter focuses on the contributions made in the development of assistive technologies for the navigation of blind and visually impaired (BVI) individuals. A special interest is placed on vision-based systems that make use of image (RGB) and depth (D) information to assist their indoor navigation. Many commercial RGB-D cameras exist on the market, but for many years the Microsoft Kinect has been used as a tool for research in this field. Therefore, first-hand experience and advances on the use of Kinect for the development of an indoor navigation aid system for BVI individuals is presented. Limitations that can be encountered in building such a system are addressed at length. Finally, an overview of novel avenues of research in indoor navigation for BVI individuals such as integration of computer vision algorithms, deep learning for the classification of objects, and recent developments with stereo depth vision are discussed.

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Mesh Network of eHealth Intelligent Agents for Visually Impaired and Blind People

10.4018/978-1-7998-4186-9.ch013 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 240-271

Author(s):

Dmytro Zubov

Keyword(s):

Intelligent Agents ◽

Visually Impaired ◽

Assistive Devices ◽

Mesh Network ◽

Assistive Device ◽

Raspberry Pi ◽

Industrial Facilities ◽

Blind And Visually Impaired ◽

Wide Range ◽

Human Faces

Smart assistive devices for blind and visually impaired (B&VI) people are of high interest today since wearable IoT hardware became available for a wide range of users. In the first project, the Raspberry Pi 3 B board measures a distance to the nearest obstacle via ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04 and recognizes human faces by Pi camera, OpenCV library, and Adam Geitgey module. Objects are found by Bluetooth devices of classes 1-3 and iBeacons. Intelligent eHealth agents cooperate with one another in a smart city mesh network via MQTT and BLE protocols. In the second project, B&VIs are supported to play golf. Golf flagsticks have sound marking devices with a buzzer, NodeMcu Lua ESP8266 ESP-12 WiFi board, and WiFi remote control. In the third project, an assistive device supports the orientation of B&VIs by measuring the distance to obstacles via Arduino Uno and HC-SR04. The distance is pronounced through headphones. In the fourth project, the soft-/hardware complex uses Raspberry Pi 3 B and Bytereal iBeacon fingerprinting to uniquely identify the B&VI location at industrial facilities.

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Assistive Technology in Mathematics Learning for Visually Impaired Students

Tadris Jurnal Keguruan dan Ilmu Tarbiyah ◽

10.24042/tadris.v3i1.2406 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Gangsar Ali Daroni ◽

Gunarhadi Gunarhadi ◽

Edy Legowo

Keyword(s):

Assistive Technology ◽

Visually Impaired ◽

Mathematics Learning ◽

Mathematical Concept ◽

Assistive Technologies ◽

Learning Mathematics ◽

Visually Impaired Students ◽

Math Problems ◽

Impaired Children ◽

Visually Impaired Children

Mathematics is an important subject to be learned by all children. Visually impaired children experience obstacles in following the process of mathematics learning caused by abnormalities. Visually impaired students experience obstacles in the process of thinking at the disequilibrium stage and low understanding of concepts when studying mathematics. It caused them to experience difficulties when doing math problems. Assistive technology is a technology created specifically to improve or maintain the functional ability of children with special needs in order to accomplish tasks that hard for them to do. Assistive technology for visually impaired children is made by maximizing the abilities that the children still possess and helping them to get a clearer mathematical concept. This article is a literary study which aims to provide information about the difficulty for the visually impaired students in mathematics learning and assistive technologies that have been developed to support the learning. This article can be used as the basis for developing new assistive technology in mathematics learning. Assistive technology is needed to help children with visual impairment in following the learning of mathematics and to optimize the ability of the children in learning mathematics.

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A Smart Vision Based Navigation Aid for the Visually Impaired

Asian Journal of Research in Computer Science ◽

10.9734/ajrcos/2019/v4i330114 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Benjamin Kommey ◽

Kumbong Herrman ◽

Ernest Ofosu Addo

Keyword(s):

Autonomous Navigation ◽

Visually Impaired ◽

High Performance ◽

Autonomous Systems ◽

Assistive Technologies ◽

Audio Signals ◽

Safety Issues ◽

Blind And Visually Impaired ◽

Visually Impaired People ◽

Outdoor Scenes

Due to the ever increasing number of blind and visually impaired people in the world, there has been a great amount of research dedicated to the design of assistive technologies to support them. The various assistive technologies apply different techniques including laser, ultrasonic sensors and image processing. Autonomous navigation is a significant challenge for the visually impaired, it makes life uncomfortable for them and poses serious safety issues. In this paper we review the progress made so far in vision based systems and propose an approach for developing navigation aids through techniques used in other autonomous systems like self-driving vehicles. The proposed system uses a front camera to capture images and then produces commensurate guiding audio signals that allow the user freely move in their environment. An extra rear camera is included to allow the user to obtain more information about the scene. Care is taken however not to overload the user with information. The proposed method is tested both in indoor and outdoor scenes and is effective in notifying the user for any obstacles. The goal of this paper is to propose a model for and to develop subsystems for an intelligent, high performance, affordable and easy to use image based navigation aid for the visually impaired.

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Implementation of Assistive Technology with Students who are Visually Impaired: Teachers’ Readiness

Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness ◽

10.1177/0145482x0209600204 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 96 (2) ◽

pp. 98-105 ◽

Cited By ~ 69

Author(s):

Gerald H. Abner ◽

Elizabeth A. Lahm

Keyword(s):

Assistive Technology ◽

Visually Impaired ◽

Visual Impairments ◽

Training Needs ◽

Assistive Technologies ◽

Computer Based ◽

Training And Support

Teachers of students of visual impairments in Kentucky were surveyed to identify the current assistive technologies their students were using and to identify the teachers’ possible unmet training needs. Although the teachers had access to and used computer-based technologies, they lacked the training and support for teaching specific technologies to their students, so only half their students used these technologies.

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Co-Creating an Integrative Framework to Enhance the Museum Experience of Blind and Visually Impaired Visitors

Handbook of Research on Social Media Applications for the Tourism and Hospitality Sector - Advances in Hospitality, Tourism, and the Services Industry ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-1947-9.ch011 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 164-191

Author(s):

Roberto Ivo Fernandes Vaz

Keyword(s):

Visually Impaired ◽

Social Inclusion ◽

Assistive Technologies ◽

Exhibit Design ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Integrative Framework ◽

Blind And Visually Impaired ◽

Museum Exhibitions ◽

Museum Experience ◽

Physical Access

Millions of people with vision impairments worldwide still experience many barriers when visiting museum exhibitions, given the tenacious ocular centricity of these institutions and the lack of assistive technologies that promote multisensory exhibit design. It is urgent to give priority to issues related to the accessibility of those patrons in museums, as well as their social inclusion, considering that visual impairment is a diverse spectrum. This chapter aims to research blind and visually impaired visitors' experiences in these institutions and presents a proposal of an integrative framework, co-created based on semi-structured interviews conducted with 29 individuals from Portugal. It concluded that sensory, intellectual and physical access must be integrated into the pre-visit, on-site visit and post-visit phases of interaction with cultural institutions, in order to promote a sense of autonomy to visually impaired individuals.

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