Development of walking support system for the visually impaired people using pre-trained AI model

Abstract

it is essentially important for the visually impaired to accurately understand their surroundings. However, the only way for visually impaired people to understand their surroundings is by hearing and touch. In human support, a pointing operation is effective in which the supporter holds the hand of a visually impaired person and points his or her hand toward the surrounding object to indicate its position. The purpose of this research is to develop a system that enables visually impaired people to walk straight toward their goals. The system captures the direction ahead with a small camera held in the hand, recognizes the object in the direction of travel from the image using pre-trained AI, and presents it to the visually impaired by voice. The user sets the target object in the direction of travel from the presented objects. The system detects the deviation from the target from the camera image while walking, instructs the user the deviation and the direction of travel by voice, and assists the user to walk straight toward the target.