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

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.

scholarly journals Mobility Assistive Device for the Visually Impaired

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 129-133
Author(s):  
Puru Malhotra and Vinay Kumar Saini
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Structural Design ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Assistive Device ◽  
Raspberry Pi ◽  
Traditional Use ◽  
Smart Glasses ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Walking Stick

he paper is aimed at the design of a mobility assistive device to help the visually impaired. The traditional use of a walking stick proposes its own drawbacks and limitations. Our research is motivated by the inability of the visually impaired people to ambulate and we have made an attempt to restore their independence and reduce the trouble of carrying a stick around. We offer a hands-free wearable glass which finds it utility in real-time navigation. The design of the smart glasses includes the integration of various sensors with raspberry pi. The paper presents a detailed account of the various components and the structural design of the glasses. The novelty of our work lies in providing a complete pipeline for analysis of surroundings in real-time and hence a better solution for navigating during the day to day activities using audio instructions as output.

A Vocational Aids Resource File for the Visually Impaired

1979 ◽  
Vol 73 (7) ◽  
pp. 283-287
Author(s):  
William L. Needham
Keyword(s):  
Vocational Rehabilitation ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Data File ◽  
Assistive Devices ◽  
Rehabilitation Counselors ◽  
Blind And Visually Impaired ◽  
Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors ◽  
Resource File ◽  
Informational Resource ◽  
Visually Impaired Persons

Describes an informational resource bank for vocation-related assistive devices for blind and visually impaired persons. The data file is to help vocational rehabilitation counselors of the Florida Division of Blind Services to identify and evaluate assistive devices for client use. The file is designed for continuous update, and counselors may request copies of information on specific devices. Unique features of the information include evaluative comments on devices and index access by job function.

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

Sensors ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Intelligent Assistive System for Visually Disabled Persons

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1436-1440
Keyword(s):  
Optical Character Recognition ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Disabled Persons ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Assistive Device ◽  
Raspberry Pi ◽  
New Device ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Impaired People

There is increasin demand for smart widgets which make people more comfortable. Though many research works have done on current existing devices/systems for visually impaired people are not providing facilities them enough. The imperceptible people read Braille scripted books only, so here developing a new device that will assist the visually impaired people and also providing desired language reading facility. This smart assistive device will help visually impaired people gain increased independence and freedom in society. This device has an obstacle detection sensor to intimate the obstacles to the visually impaired person and a camera connected to Raspberry pi to convert image to text using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). The read data is converted to speech using text to speech synthesizer. This will useful for visually impaired people for surviving in outdoor environment as well as reading books which are in normal script. The read data can be stored in database for further reading and it can be retrieve by giving a command.

Technological Needs of Visually Impaired and Blind Persons in Arkansas

1990 ◽  
Vol 84 (10) ◽  
pp. 534-538
Author(s):  
H.P. Parette ◽  
A. Van Biervliet ◽  
M.C. Holbrook
Keyword(s):  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Unmet Needs ◽  
Assistive Devices ◽  
Blind And Visually Impaired ◽  
Life Functioning ◽  
Funding Support ◽  
Blind Persons ◽  
Visually Impaired Persons ◽  
Access Program ◽  
Satisfaction With Services

This article reports on a statewide survey of the use of technological assistive devices and the unmet needs of 790 blind and visually impaired persons in Arkansas. The survey was conducted in preparation for establishing the Arkansas Technology Access Program under P.L. 100–407. The areas surveyed were life functioning, spending practices and credit options for purchasing devices, funding support systems, travel practices, need for further information, and satisfaction with services and devices.

scholarly journals Indoor Low Cost Assistive Device using 2D SLAM Based on LiDAR for Visually Impaired People

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-121
Author(s):  
Heba Hakim ◽  
Ali Marhoon
Keyword(s):  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Speech Synthesis ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Optimal Path ◽  
Recognition System ◽  
Ultrasonic Sensor ◽  
Assistive Device ◽  
Raspberry Pi ◽  
Planning Algorithm ◽  
Indoor Scenarios

Many assistive devices have been developed for visually impaired (VI) person in recent years which solve the problems that face VI person in his/her daily moving. Most of researches try to solve the obstacle avoidance or navigation problem, and others focus on assisting VI person to recognize the objects in his/her surrounding environment. However, a few of them integrate both navigation and recognition capabilities in their system. According to above needs, an assistive device is presented in this paper that achieves both capabilities to aid the VI person to (1) navigate safely from his/her current location (pose) to a desired destination in unknown environment, and (2) recognize his/her surrounding objects. The proposed system consists of the low cost sensors Neato XV-11 LiDAR, ultrasonic sensor, Raspberry pi camera (CameraPi), which are hold on a white cane. Hector SLAM based on 2D LiDAR is used to construct a 2D-map of unfamiliar environment. While A* path planning algorithm generates an optimal path on the given 2D hector map. Moreover, the temporary obstacles in front of VI person are detected by an ultrasonic sensor. The recognition system based on Convolution Neural Networks (CNN) technique is implemented in this work to predict object class besides enhance the navigation system. The interaction between the VI person and an assistive system is done by audio module (speech recognition and speech synthesis). The proposed system performance has been evaluated on various real-time experiments conducted in indoor scenarios, showing the efficiency of the proposed system.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jumi Hwang ◽  
Kyung Hee Kim ◽  
Jong Gyu Hwang ◽  
Sungchan Jun ◽  
Jiwon Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Activity Index ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Assistive Device ◽  
Signal Acquisition ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Generative Topographic Mapping ◽  
Blind And Visually Impaired ◽  
Grid Points

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.

Medical and Everyday Assistive Device Use among Older Adults with Arthritis

2002 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Sutton ◽  
Monique A.M. Gignac ◽  
Cheryl Cott
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Physical Disability ◽  
Assistive Devices ◽  
Assistive Device ◽  
Enabling Factors ◽  
Community Mobility ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Household Activities ◽  
Device Use ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

ABSTRACTThis research compared older adults' use of medical assistive devices (ADs) with their use of everyday ADs as a means of managing chronic physical disability. The study also examined whether predisposing, need, and enabling factors were associated with device use in three domains of activity: personal care / in-home mobility, household activities, and community mobility. Participants were 248 adults, aged 55 years and older, with a wide range of disability levels as a result of osteoarthritis. All participants were administered an in-depth, structured questionnaire, as part of a larger study examining older adults' independence and adaptation to chronic physical illness. The results revealed that respondents actively adapted to their disabilities and used a wide range of medical and everyday devices, with everyday devices being reported more than twice as often as medical ADs and the fewest devices overall being reported for community mobility. In general, medical devices were used when subjective and objective need for ADs was considerable. Everyday devices were reported earlier in the trajectory of the disease, at mild and moderate disability levels, and were associated with a broader pattern of adaptation that included planning to avoid problems, exercise, and pacing activities.

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