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University of Nevada, Reno computer science engineering team KostasBekris and Eelke Folmer presented their indoor navigation systemfor people with visual impairments at two national conferencesrecently. The researchers explained how a combination ofhuman-computer interaction and motion-planning research was used tobuild a low-cost accessible navigation system, called Navatar,which can run on a standard smartphone. "Existing indoor navigation systems typically require the use ofexpensive and heavy sensors, or equipping rooms and hallways withradio-frequency tags that can be detected by a handheld reader andwhich are used to determine the user's location," Bekris, of theCollege of Engineering's Robotics Research Lab, said. "This hasoften made the implementation of such systems prohibitivelyexpensive, with few systems having been deployed." Instead, the University of Nevada, Reno navigation system usesdigital 2D architectural maps that are already available for manybuildings, and uses low-cost sensors, such as accelerometers andcompasses, that are available in most smartphones, to navigateusers with visual impairments. The system locates and tracks theuser inside the building, finding the most suitable path based onthe users special needs, and gives step-by-step instructions to thedestination. "Nevertheless, the smartphone's sensors, which are used tocalculate how many steps the user has executed and her orientation,tend to pick up false signals," Folmer, who has developed exercisevideo games for the blind, said. "To synchronize the location, oursystem combines probabilistic algorithms and the naturalcapabilities of people with visual impairments to detect landmarksin their environment through touch, such as corridor intersections,doors, stairs and elevators." Folmer explained that as touch screen devices are challenging touse for users with visual impairments, directions are providedusing synthetic speech and users confirm the presence of a landmarkby verbal confirmation or by pressing a button on the phone or on aBluetooth headset. A benefit of this approach is that the user canleave the phone in their pocket leaving both hands free for using acane and recognizing tactile landmarks. "This is a very cool mix of disciplines, using the user as a sensorcombined with sophisticated localization algorithms from the fieldof robotics," Folmer, of the University's Computer ScienceEngineering Human-Computer Interaction Lab, said. The team is currently trying to implement their navigation systemin other environments and integrate it into outdoor navigationsystems that use GPS. "My research is motivated by the belief that a disability can beturned into an innovation driver," Folmer said. "When we try tosolve interaction design problems for the most extreme users, suchas users with visual impairments, there is the potential todiscover solutions that may benefit anyone. Though the navigationsystem was specifically developed for users with visualimpairments, it can be used by sighted users as well." For their work on the indoor navigation system for the blind,Bekris and Folmer recently won a PETA Proggy Award for Leadershipin Ethical Science. PETA's Proggy Awards ("Proggy" is for"progress") recognize animal-friendly achievements. The navigationsystem was deemed such an achievement because it could decrease theneed to rely on guide dogs. They presented and demonstrated their research at the IEEEInternational Conference on Robotics and Automation in St. Paul.,Minn. and at the CM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in ComputingSystems, which is the premier international conference onhuman-computer interaction. Additional References Citations. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Din Rail Connectors Manufacturer , China Spring Terminal Connector for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Plug In Terminal Block Connector.
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