A System for Wearable Audio Navigation Integrating Advanced Localization and Auditory Display

集成先进定位和听觉显示的可穿戴音频导航系统

• 批准号: 0534332
• 负责人: Bruce Walker
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-10-15 至 2009-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0534332&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: System; Wearable; Audio; Navigation; Integrating

For the millions of visually impaired people in the United States, over a million of whom have no usable vision, spatial orientation and navigation are a major problem leading to loss of mobility and reduced participation in community activities, not to mention serious safety concerns for those who do attempt to be fully mobile. There is thus a critical need for an aid that would provide the orientation and navigation information and spatial cues the rest of us take for granted. The goal of this project is to achieve this objective by bringing to bear technologies and development expertise in the fields of geographic information system (GIS) database development and maintenance, real-time tracking, and psycho-acoustics and audio presentation. The PI and his team will develop a seamless, spatialized audio presentation system with which a person can obtain the additional orientation cues and navigation information needed to move about successfully and safely in familiar and unfamiliar outdoor and indoor environments. To these ends, a GIS database for visually impaired pedestrians will be developed to define accessible walking paths and provide a means of route planning. This database will complement conventional, surveyed map data with paths frequented by users of the system, including annotations of information relevant to these paths such as easily recognized landmarks along the path and hazardous obstacles to avoid. Achieving an effective presentation will require real-time tracking of the person's "head pose" (location and orientation of the head in space). This will be accomplished by integrating data from GPS and inertial sensing with high frequency head pose data. Novel probabilistic localization algorithms will be developed to improve the positional accuracy of outdoor GPS using map-based priors and historical modeling of user intent. Visual 3D reconstruction will be used to create indoor and outdoor databases to support this purpose and obviate the need for an indoor sensing infrastructure. A novel vision-based localization sensor will be developed to provide head pose based on this 3D database. In developing an audio presentation system the use of non-speech sounds will be investigated as an alternative to speech for situations where immediate environmental spatial awareness and orientation is more of a concern than particular semantic information about that environment. Clearly, when the task at hand is to move through the environment effectively and safely to a particular destination, being told the name of every doorway and object being passed is more of a distraction than an aid. However, an awareness of the presence and relative location of doorways and objects along the way is useful as a means of monitoring progress and maintaining spatial orientation. The PI's solution is to develop generic characteristic sounds, analogous to international signage, which are easily recognized and associated with particular classes of objects (e.g., the sound of a closing door for an entrance). To avoid covering the ears, bone conduction headsets will be employed, and a bone-related transfer function developed to present effective stereo imaging of sounds. Experiments will be conducted to determine what sounds are most intuitive and easily localized, what variety and number of different sounds can be easily learned, and how to produce such sounds so they do not distract attention from important natural sound cues. System integration for seamless operation will be accomplished by developing an overarching operating system that treats each of the first two systems as modules from which data must be fused for presentation by the third system. This operating system will also respond to control commands made through user input, whereby selections may be made regarding the type, amount, detail and radius of information being presented.Broader Impacts: Fundamental questions relating to perception and the cognitive interpretation of auditory presentations will be answered in the course of this research; these results will be applicable to a much broader field of audio display technologies. In addition, methods for effectively and efficiently presenting a wide range of spatial information quickly and in real time will be developed; this knowledge will be applicable to any field where large amounts of such information must be assimilated quickly though non-visual channels. Overall, this research will lead to more effective auditory presentation and information delivery systems that can be used not only by people who are visually impaired, but wherever and whenever timely situational awareness is needed, from better systems for air traffic controllers to faster assimilation of awareness in complex situations. Such systems could prove invaluable to military personnel, firefighters, jet pilots, first responders, etc., and in general to anyone who needs to acquire more information about his or her surroundings in a manner that augments rather than impedes other sensory processes.

对于美国数百万视力受损的人来说，其中超过100万人没有可用的视力，空间定向和导航是导致丧失移动性和减少参与社群活动的主要问题，更不用说那些试图完全移动的的人的严重安全问题。 因此，迫切需要一种能够提供我们其他人认为理所当然的方向和导航信息以及空间线索的辅助工具。 该项目的目标是通过利用地理信息系统数据库开发和维护、实时跟踪、心理声学和音频演示等领域的技术和开发专门知识来实现这一目标。 PI和他的团队将开发一个无缝的空间化音频演示系统，使用该系统，人们可以获得在熟悉和不熟悉的室外和室内环境中成功安全移动所需的额外方向提示和导航信息。 为此，将为视障行人建立一个地理信息系统数据库，以确定无障碍步行路径，并提供一种路线规划手段。 该数据库将补充传统的、测量的地图数据，其中包括系统用户经常使用的路径，包括与这些路径有关的信息的注释，例如路径上容易识别的地标沿着和要避开的危险障碍物。 实现有效的演示将需要实时跟踪人的“头部姿势”（头部在空间中的位置和方向）。 这将通过将来自全球定位系统和惯性传感的数据与高频头部姿势数据相结合来实现。 将开发新的概率定位算法，以提高室外GPS的定位精度，使用基于地图的先验和用户意图的历史建模。 视觉3D重建将用于创建室内和室外数据库，以支持这一目的，并满足室内传感基础设施的需求。 将开发一种新的基于视觉的定位传感器，以提供基于该3D数据库的头部姿态。 在开发音频演示系统中，将研究使用非语音声音作为语音的替代方案，用于即时环境空间意识和方向比关于该环境的特定语义信息更受关注的情况。 显然，当手头的任务是有效而安全地穿过环境到达特定目的地时，被告知每个门口和物体的名称与其说是帮助，不如说是分散注意力。 然而，意识到门口和沿着物体的存在和相对位置是有用的，作为监测进展和保持空间定向的手段。 PI的解决方案是开发通用的特征声音，类似于国际标志，易于识别并与特定类别的对象（例如，入口处关门的声音）。 为了避免覆盖耳朵，将采用骨传导耳机，并开发与骨相关的传递函数，以呈现声音的有效立体成像。 将进行实验，以确定什么声音是最直观和容易定位，什么种类和数量的不同的声音可以很容易地学习，以及如何产生这样的声音，使他们不会分散注意力从重要的自然声音线索。 为实现无缝操作而进行的系统整合将通过开发一个总体操作系统来实现，该系统将前两个系统中的每一个系统视为模块，必须将其中的数据合并，以便由第三个系统呈现。 该操作系统还将响应通过用户输入的控制命令，从而可以选择有关的类型，数量，细节和半径的信息presented.Broader的影响：基本问题有关的感知和听觉演示的认知解释将回答在本研究的过程中，这些结果将适用于更广泛的领域的音频显示技术。 此外，还将开发快速和真实的时间有效和高效地呈现各种空间信息的方法;这一知识将适用于必须通过非视觉渠道快速吸收大量此类信息的任何领域。 总的来说，这项研究将导致更有效的听觉呈现和信息传递系统，不仅可以用于视力受损的人，而且无论何时何地都需要及时的态势感知，从更好的空中交通管制员系统到复杂情况下更快的感知同化。 这样的系统对军事人员、消防员、喷气式飞机飞行员、急救人员等来说是非常宝贵的，并且一般来说，对于需要以增强而不是阻碍其他感觉过程的方式获得关于他或她的周围环境的更多信息的任何人。