Developing a Self-Calibrating Navigation System to Address the Orientation Challenges faced by Older People with Visual Impairments

英国有200多万老年人患有失明(AgeUK 2015)；全球估计有2.53亿(Ackland Et Al 2017)。随着人口老龄化，这一数字将会增加，因为失明对老年人的影响不成比例。失明的人可以利用白色手杖四处走动，通常与智能手机导航应用程序结合使用。这些功能可以包括屏幕阅读器、滤色器和灵活工具等辅助功能。然而，长拐杖只能探测到膝盖以下和使用者大约1米范围内的障碍物。此外，大多数智能手机的界面都没有开发出与这些辅助功能足够兼容的产品，这限制了它们的实用性。这使得视障人士(VII)在繁忙的城市地区安全导航尤其具有挑战性，特别是在汽车、自行车和行人非常接近的地方。为了应对这一挑战，WeWALK开发了一种革命性的“智能”设备，可以拧紧用户现有的拐杖，升级这一超过5000万人依赖的工具。我们的手杖可以探测齐膝至头的障碍物，并通过与谷歌地图、Moovit和微软服务的集成，独特地连接到用户的智能手机，提供基于音频的导航。项目合作伙伴加强WeWALK室内定位的努力发现，通过情景感知，可以在所有环境中无缝寻路，包括户外。该项目将解决这一挑战，包括个人无法定位最终目的地或交通路线的最后一英里问题，为旧的VI创建一个完全自主的、全面的、安全关键的和可访问的导航系统。最近的辅助智能手机应用程序除了环境地图和通过同步定位和地图(SLAM)的概念进行定位外，还包括用于物体识别的计算机视觉。它们的基本原理在解决WeWALK的导航限制方面非常有用；然而，到目前为止，它们还没有表现出足够的系统性能(准确性/可靠性/可用性)来用于安全关键型应用，例如使VII能够在城市环境中导航，避免危险。我们将解决阻碍计算机视觉辅助导航广泛采用的技术/安全挑战，包括环境地图和老年人和VII的整体情况感知。我们将在现有WeWALK架构的基础上构建新的硬件和软件，整合空间传感和先进的数据分析，提供安全关键的功能和可用性框架。该项目有可能在确保越来越多的视障人士能够充分利用我们生活、工作和娱乐的城市空间方面发挥重要作用。

There are over 2 million older people with sight loss in the UK(AgeUK\_2015); globally, it's estimated to be 253 million(Ackland\_et\_al\_2017). As the population ages, this figure will increase as sight loss disproportionally impacts older people. People with sight loss benefit from the white cane to get around, often in conjunction with smartphone navigation apps. These can include accessibility features such as screen readers, colour filters, and dexterity tools. However, a long cane can only detect obstacles below knee-height and within approximately 1m of the user. Moreover, most smartphone interfaces are not developed with sufficient compatibility for these accessibility features, limiting their usefulness. This makes it particularly challenging for visually impaired individuals(VIIs) to navigate safely in busy urban areas, especially where cars, bicycles, and pedestrians are found in close proximity.To address this challenge, WeWALK have developed a revolutionary "smart" device that screws onto a user's existing cane, upgrading a tool relied on by over 50 million people. Our cane detects obstacles at knee-to-head height and uniquely connects to a user's smartphone to provide audio-based navigation via integration with Google Maps, Moovit, and Microsoft services. Efforts to enhance WeWALK's indoor positioning by the project partners have uncovered that seamless wayfinding in all environments, including outdoors, is possible with situational awareness. This project will address this challenge, including the last-mile problem where individuals fail to locate their final destination or transport route, creating a fully autonomous, comprehensive, safety-critical, and accessible navigation system for older VIIs.Recent assistive smartphone apps have included computer vision for object recognition in addition to environmental mapping and localisation through the concept of simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM). Their underlying principle can be very useful in solving WeWALK's navigation constraints; however, to date, they have not demonstrated adequate system performance(accuracy/reliability/usability) for use in a safety-critical application such as enabling a VII to navigate, avoiding hazards, around an urban environment.We will address the technical/safety challenges that have prevented widespread uptake of computer vision-aided navigation including environmental mapping and overall situational awareness for older and VIIs. We will build on the existing WeWALK architecture with new hardware and software, incorporating spatial sensing and advanced data analytics, providing safety-critical functionality and usability frameworks. This project has the potential to play a vital role in ensuring that the rising numbers of visually impaired people have full access to the urban spaces where we live, work, and play.