A Precision Navigation System for People with a Visual Impairment

专为视力障碍人士设计的精准导航系统

• 批准号: 8886790
• 负责人: David A. Ross
• 金额: $ 27.9万
• 依托单位: ATLANTA RESEARCH & EDUCATION FDN, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8886790
• 关键词: Address; Algorithms; Attention; Biomechanics; Blindness; Body measure procedure; Canes; Cellular Phone; Communities; Computer software; Crowding; Data; Data Sources; Databases; Destinations; Development; Drops; Educational process of instructing; Electronic Mail; Elements; Environment; Evaluation; Eye diseases; Fright; Gait; Goals; Health; Hip region structure; Human; Improve Access; Information Systems; Knowledge; Literature; Locales; Location; Maps; Mediation; Mission; Modeling; Motion; Movement; Names; Navigation System; Neighborhoods; Outcome; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Persons; Population; Population Characteristics; Positioning Attribute; Public Health; Quality of life; Rehabilitation therapy; Research; Research Design; Research Support; Resolution; Resources; Route; Side; Solid; Solutions; Somatotype; Source; Statistical Methods; Structure; Students; System; Technology; Testing; Time; Touch sensation; Travel; United States National Institutes of Health; Vision Disorders; Visual impairment; Walking; Work; Workplace; base; blind; digital; disability; foot; improved; innovation; instructor; kinematics; meter; new technology; primary outcome; programs; prototype; public health relevance; sensor; sight for the blind; tool; trafficking

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this proposal is to develop a precision navigation system for people with visual impairment. There is a technological gap between what can now be provided and what is needed. What is needed is "cane-touch" precision. The person needs to be guided close enough to specific locations to find it with a cane. Existing navigation systems employing the Global Positioning System (GPS) can only provide the name of the intersection being approached. The proposed research design is constructed around the hypothesis that the goal of precision guidance can be achieved by merging two types of navigation systems: (1) GPS and (2) Inertial Navigation. Inertial navigation uses sensors now contained in smart phones to track a person's location as s/he is walking toward a destination. Given the location of a destination, it can precisely guide the user there. But it is a short-range solution that loses precision past distances of 50 to 100 meters. GPS often has an "offset bias" error. In a particular locale it may be off by 10 meters to the north of the actual location. This offset bias may be stable for several blocks, and then shift over a fairly short walking distance. The working hypothesis is that cane-touch precision can be achieved by fusing inertial navigation data with GPS data using a data fusion algorithm. Such an algorithm uses statistical methods to merge from two sources to provide more accurate and reliable information than can be obtained from data source separately. There is also an information gap. Research has shown that current inertial navigation systems do not work well for persons with a visual impairment. The reason is that people walking with a cane have an atypical walking style that makes it difficult to track their footsteps. People with a visual impairment tend to walk in a tentative fashion, making sure there is solid ground beneath their foot before placing it down. Various types of body motion characteristic of this population have been shown to be indicative of a footstep. To this end, a motion analysis study for persons with visual impairment is proposed. The hypothesis is that data from this study will provide what is needed to track the movement of their feet, and thus the person's movement. Also needed is map information providing the exact location of accessible walking paths and crosswalks, etc. We will develop a crowd-source paradigm to populate a public database with such map data. The resultant navigation app will be implemented as an application (app) for a smart phone and evaluated by subjects who are visually impaired. The expected outcome is an app for smart phones that provides precision (cane-touch) navigational guidance to persons with visual impairment. This will be invaluable, providing them the ability to independently and safely navigate outdoor environments and find important environmental elements such as pedestrian push buttons, which are never in a standard location. It will also enhance the gait literature for this population.

 描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的目的是为视力障碍者开发一种精密导航系统。 在现在能够提供的和需要的之间存在着技术差距。 我们需要的是"摸杖"式的精确。 这个人需要被引导到足够近的特定位置，用手杖找到它。 采用全球定位系统（GPS）的现有导航系统只能提供正在接近的十字路口的名称。 本研究设计的前提是，通过（1）GPS和（2）惯性导航这两种导航系统的组合，可以实现精确制导的目标。 惯性导航使用现在包含在智能手机中的传感器来跟踪一个人的位置，因为他/她正在走向目的地。 给定目的地的位置，它可以精确地引导用户 那里 但它是一种短程解决方案，在50到100米的距离内会失去精度。 GPS通常有一个"偏移偏差"的错误。 在特定的场所，它可能会偏离实际位置以北10米。 这种偏移偏差可能在几个街区内是稳定的，然后在相当短的步行距离内发生变化。 工作假设是，手杖触摸精度可以通过使用数据融合算法将惯性导航数据与GPS数据融合来实现。 这种算法使用统计方法从两个源合并，以提供比单独从数据源获得的信息更准确和可靠的信息。 此外，还存在信息差距。 研究表明，目前的惯性导航系统对视力障碍者效果不佳。 原因是拄着拐杖走路的人有一种非典型的行走方式，这使得很难跟踪他们的脚步。 有视力障碍的人走路时往往会试探性地走，在放下脚之前要确保脚下有坚实的地面。 这一人群的各种类型的身体运动特征已被证明是脚步的指示。 为此，提出了一个运动分析研究的视觉障碍的人。 假设这项研究的数据将提供跟踪他们的脚的运动所需的信息，从而跟踪这个人的运动。 还需要的是地图信息，提供准确的位置，可访问的步行路径和人行横道等，我们将开发一个众包范例，以填充这样的地图数据的公共数据库。 由此产生的导航应用程序将作为智能手机的应用程序（应用程序）实施，并由视力受损的受试者进行评估。 预期成果是开发一个智能手机应用程序，为视力障碍者提供精确（手杖触摸）导航指导。 这将是非常宝贵的，为他们提供了独立和安全地导航户外环境的能力，并找到重要的环境元素，如行人按钮，这是从来没有在一个标准的位置。 它还将增强步态文献， 这个人口。