Technologies and Sensors for Visually Impaired People

Topic Information

Dear Colleagues,

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment, about 246 million suffer from low vision, and 39 million are blind. Many assistive technologies (ATs) and sensors exist to help visually impaired people be more independent and healthy, as well as improve their participation in education, working, and social life. ATs can also reduce the need of care services, alleviate the burthen on families, and prevent the risk of poverty. On the other hand, ATs are sometimes expensive, even in high-income countries, and complex for the users, with inadequate functional design or cosmetic acceptability. This is often due to the little attention given by researchers and industrial corporations, which are often more attracted by popular mass-market segments. In this topic, we focus on visually impaired people, investigating how new technologies and sensors can support their specific needs. Indeed, different AT devices can support people with visual impairements in a range of tasks or might be focused on a specific task. For example, many applications exploit the variety of sensors included in most smartphones and tablets, such as cameras, accelerometers, GPS, etc., to provide navigation, object recognition, and social interaction services. Moreover, recent advancements in data analysis, machine learning, human–computer interaction, and the development of new actuators (haptic, vibrational, audio, braille, etc.) resulted in an explosion of ATs, including artificial intelligence for communication and translation, eLearning and education, computer vision, virtual and augmented environments (VR/AR), mobile and touch technology, tactile and wearable interfaces, image and Web accessibility, as well as usability, ergonomics, and user centered design of the above research fields. Finally, several ATs are based on the pervasive diffusion of sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT) to help visually impaired people in their everyday life, such as in ambient and assisted living (AAL), while other ATs focus more on providing mechanisms to support caregivers. This topic aims to address technologies and sensors overcoming or easing visual impairements and related topics of interest, which include but are not limited to:

• AT and assistive robotics for visually impaired people;
• AAL, smart environments and IoT for visually impaired people;
• AT and artificial intelligence for visually impaired;
• Virtual and augmented reality for visually impaired;
• Computer vision applications for visually impaired people;
• Bioengineering for visually impaired;
• Auditory and spatial perception of visually impaired people;
• Alternative and augmentative communication for visually impaired people;
• Wearable and haptics for visually impaired;
• Navigation and guidance for visually impaired people;
• Assisted mobility for visually impaired people;
• Accessibility of images, software, web, and social media;
• Safety and security of AT for visually impaired people;
• Inclusive R&D, usability, ergonomics, and user centered design of AT for visually impaired people;
• ATs in education for visually impaired people;
• ATs for visually impaired people in low- and middle-income countries.

Dr. Daniele Croce
Prof. Dr. Laura Giarré
Dr. Domenico Garlisi
Topic Editors

Keywords

Participating Journals

Journal Name	Impact Factor	CiteScore	Launched Year	First Decision (median)	APC
Bioengineering bioengineering	3.8	4.0	2014	15.6 Days	CHF 2700
Biomechanics biomechanics	-	1.5	2021	20.4 Days	CHF 1000
Biosensors biosensors	4.9	6.6	2011	17.1 Days	CHF 2700
Robotics robotics	2.9	6.7	2012	17.7 Days	CHF 1800
Sensors sensors	3.4	7.3	2001	16.8 Days	CHF 2600

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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All Bioengineering Biomechanics Biosensors Robotics Sensors

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11 pages, 1745 KiB  

Open AccessArticle

Estimation of Spatio-Temporal Parameters of Gait and Posture of Visually Impaired People Using Wearable Sensors

by Karla Miriam Reyes Leiva, Miguel Ángel Cuba Gato and José Javier Serrano Olmedo

Sensors 2023, 23(12), 5564; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23125564 - 14 Jun 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1851

Abstract

In rehabilitating orientation and mobility (O&M) for visually impaired people (VIP), the measurement of spatio-temporal gait and postural parameters is of specific interest for rehabilitators to assess performance and improvements in independent mobility. In the current practice of rehabilitation worldwide, this assessment is [...] Read more.

In rehabilitating orientation and mobility (O&M) for visually impaired people (VIP), the measurement of spatio-temporal gait and postural parameters is of specific interest for rehabilitators to assess performance and improvements in independent mobility. In the current practice of rehabilitation worldwide, this assessment is carried out in people with estimates made visually. The objective of this research was to propose a simple architecture based on the use of wearable inertial sensors for quantitative estimation of distance traveled, step detection, gait velocity, step length and postural stability. These parameters were calculated using absolute orientation angles. Two different sensing architectures were tested for gait according to a selected biomechanical model. The validation tests included five different walking tasks. There were nine visually impaired volunteers in real-time acquisitions, where the volunteers walked indoor and outdoor distances at different gait velocities in their residences. The ground truth gait characteristics of the volunteers in five walking tasks and an assessment of the natural posture during the walking tasks are also presented in this article. One of the proposed methods was selected for presenting the lowest absolute error of the calculated parameters in all of the traveling experimentations: 45 walking tasks between 7 and 45 m representing a total of 1039 m walked and 2068 steps; the step length measurement was 4.6 ± 6.7 cm with a mean of 56 cm (11.59 Std) and 1.5 ± 1.6 relative error in step count, which compromised the distance traveled and gait velocity measurements, presenting an absolute error of 1.78 ± 1.80 m and 7.1 ± 7.2 cm/s, respectively. The results suggest that the proposed method and its architecture could be used as a tool for assistive technology designed for O&M training to assess gait parameters and/or navigation, and that a sensor placed in the dorsal area is sufficient to detect noticeable postural changes that compromise heading, inclinations and balancing in walking tasks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Technologies and Sensors for Visually Impaired People)

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22 pages, 4210 KiB  

Open AccessReview

Laser Sensing and Vision Sensing Smart Blind Cane: A Review

by Chunming Mai, Dongliang Xie, Lina Zeng, Zaijin Li, Zhibo Li, Zhongliang Qiao, Yi Qu, Guojun Liu and Lin Li

Sensors 2023, 23(2), 869; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23020869 - 12 Jan 2023

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 13190

Abstract

Laser sensing and vision sensing smart canes can improve the convenience of travel for the visually impaired, but for the present, most of the system functions of laser sensing and vision sensing smart canes are still defective. Guide equipment and smart blind canes [...] Read more.

Laser sensing and vision sensing smart canes can improve the convenience of travel for the visually impaired, but for the present, most of the system functions of laser sensing and vision sensing smart canes are still defective. Guide equipment and smart blind canes are introduced and classified first, and the smart blind canes based on vision sensing, laser sensing and laser vision sensing are investigated, respectively, and the research status of laser vision sensing smart blind canes is sorted out. The advantages and disadvantages of various laser vision sensing smart blind canes are summarized, especially the research development of laser vision fusion as the core of new smart canes. The future development prospects of laser vision sensing smart blind cane are overviewed, to boost the development of laser vision sensing smart blind cane, to provide safe and efficient travel guarantee for the visually impaired. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Technologies and Sensors for Visually Impaired People)

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14 pages, 4654 KiB  

Open AccessArticle

A Wearable Assistive Device for Blind Pedestrians Using Real-Time Object Detection and Tactile Presentation

by Junjie Shen, Yiwen Chen and Hideyuki Sawada

Sensors 2022, 22(12), 4537; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22124537 - 16 Jun 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3742

Abstract

Nowadays, improving the traffic safety of visually impaired people is a topic of widespread concern. To help avoid the risks and hazards of road traffic in their daily life, we propose a wearable device using object detection techniques and a novel tactile display [...] Read more.

Nowadays, improving the traffic safety of visually impaired people is a topic of widespread concern. To help avoid the risks and hazards of road traffic in their daily life, we propose a wearable device using object detection techniques and a novel tactile display made from shape-memory alloy (SMA) actuators. After detecting obstacles in real-time, the tactile display attached to a user’s hands presents different tactile sensations to show the position of the obstacles. To implement the computation-consuming object detection algorithm in a low-memory mobile device, we introduced a slimming compression method to reduce 90% of the redundant structures of the neural network. We also designed a particular driving circuit board that can efficiently drive the SMA-based tactile displays. In addition, we also conducted several experiments to verify our wearable assistive device’s performance. The results of the experiments showed that the subject was able to recognize the left or right position of a stationary obstacle with 96% accuracy and also successfully avoided collisions with moving obstacles by using the wearable assistive device. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Technologies and Sensors for Visually Impaired People)

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