All the Way There and Back: Inertial-Based, Phone-in-Pocket Indoor Wayfinding and Backtracking Apps for Blind Travelers.

Abstract

We describe two iOS apps designed to support blind travelers navigating in indoor building environments. The Wayfinding app provides guidance to a blind user while following a certain route. The Backtracking app records the route taken by the walker towards a certain destination, then provides guidance while re-tracing the same trajectory in the opposite direction. Our apps only use the inertial and magnetic sensors of the smartphone, and thus require no infrastructure modification (e.g., installation and support of BLE beacons). Unlike systems that use the phone's camera, users of our apps can conveniently keep their phone tucked inside their pocket, while interacting with the apps using a smartwatch. Routing directions are given via speech. Both apps were tested in a user study with seven blind participants who used them while navigating a campus building. Participants were able to successfully use the Wayfinding app to complete the prescribed paths (3 paths each), although the app had to be restarted for the first three participants in one path due to incorrect step length measurements (the app was later modified to track the users' step length). The Backtracking app worked well in most cases, although in 6 trials (out of 21) the app lost track of the participant's location.