Acquisition and Presentation of Diverse Spatial Context Data for Blind Navigation

In order to allow blind people independent navigation in unknown areas, we have developed a navigation system that seamlessly integrates both static maps and dynamic location-based textual information from a variety of sources. Each information source requires a different kind of acquisition technique. The acquired information is integrated by a context management platform and then presented to the user on a tactile-acoustical map depending on the sources available for his current position. Positioning is achieved by a combination of an inertial tracking system, RFID technology and GPS and the user is guided to a desired destination by speech output and a hap tic cane. The resulting system is the first of its kind to integrate a variety of maps and other accumulated location-based information on a unified interface for blind people.