MSVI - supervised autonomous pedestrian navigation: Feasibility study to integrate a smartphone for computational offloading and UX optimisation

Theia是一种为视力障碍人士设计的定向和移动设备。英国广播公司科学焦点杂志将其评为塑造未来（2020年）的头号发明。Theia的发明者安东尼·卡姆（Anthony Camu）是2021/22年度Innovate UK青年创新者群体的获奖者。你可以把它想象成一只导盲犬，帮助视力受损的用户导航。我们正在申请专利的设备扫描地面并生成用户环境的3D地图。然后，它会使用力量来引导用户的手，就像导盲犬拉着皮带一样。我们已经开发了产品的原型，并在Alpha和Beta阶段对用户进行了广泛的测试。它能够成功地支持VI人员识别障碍物并安全导航。这对英国35万盲人和弱视人群以及全球约3亿人来说可能是个好消息。在英国，95%的盲人和弱视人士在三个月内与附近的障碍物相撞，三分之一的人受伤（RNIB, 2017）。最有效的支持是一只导盲犬，但它们根本不够。72名符合条件的盲人中只有1人得到导盲犬，这使得很大一部分盲人需要其他支持和指导。这就是忒伊亚能帮上忙的地方！我们正在开发一种设备，它可以完成导盲犬的许多工作。然而，为了使我们的产品更有效，更快地将我们的产品推向市场，我们需要一个新的研发项目来研究不同的硬件配置，以降低设备成本、尺寸、重量和功率要求，从而生产出更加以用户为中心和可扩展的产品。

Theia is an orientation and mobility device for people with visual impairments. BBC Science Focus Magazine named it as the number one invention that will shape the future (2020). Anthony Camu, Theia's inventor, is an awardee of the Innovate UK Young Innovator cohort from the Year 2021/22\.Think of it as a guide dog helping Visually Impaired users to navigate. Our patent pending device scans the ground and generates a 3D map of the user's environment. It then uses forces to guide user's hands - similar to a guide dog pulling on its leash.We have already developed a prototype of our product and tested it extensively with users in Alpha and Beta phases. It is able to successfully support VI people in identifying obstacles and navigating safely.This is potentially good news for the 350,000 blind and partially sighted people in the UK and approximately 300 million worldwide. In the UK, 95% of blind and partially sighted people have collided with an obstacle in their neighbourhood within a three-month period with a third suffering injuries (RNIB, 2017).The most effective support is a guide dog, but there simply are not enough of them. Only 1 in 72 eligible VI people receive a guide dog, leaving a large proportion of VI's requiring alternative support and guidance.That is where Theia can help! We're developing a device that does many of the jobs a guide dog does. However, to make our product more effective and get our product to market sooner, a new R&D project is required to research different hardware configurations to reduce device cost, size, weight and power requirements, to lead to a more user-centric and scalable product.