A wearable system for the visually impaired

We present a light-weight, cheap and low-power, wearable system for assisting the visually impaired in performing routine mobility tasks. Our system extends the range of the white cane by providing the user with vibro-tactile cues corresponding to the location of obstacles and a safe path for traversal through a cluttered environment. The presented approach keeps cognitive load to a minimum, and while being autonomous, adapts to the changing mobility requirements of a navigating user. In this paper, we provide an overview of the hardware and algorithmic components of our system, and show results of pilot studies with human test subjects. Our system operates at 20Hz, and significantly improves mobility performance compared to using only the white cane.