Title :
DSP-based ultrasonic navigation aid for the blind
Author :
Mihajlik, P. ; Guttermuth, M. ; Seres, K. ; Tatai, P.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Telecommun. & Telematics, Budapest Univ. of Technol. & Econ., Hungary
Abstract :
This paper introduces a novel navigation aid for the blind designed at our laboratory. The system detects obstacles in front of the user by the help of ultrasonic echolocation and indicates the distance and horizontal position of the nearest detected object by spatial stereo sound effects. The instrument is based on a fixed-point digital signal processor. The applied object-localization method as well as the principle of the binaural audio feedback are discussed. Also, the operation and structure of the hardware are briefly introduced. Finally, some measurement results on an experimental device are reported
Keywords :
audio signal processing; biomedical ultrasonics; digital signal processing chips; feedback; handicapped aids; sensory aids; DSP-based aid; binaural audio feedback; blind person aid; fixed-point digital signal processor; object-localization method; obstacle detection; portable instrument; spatial stereo sound effects; ultrasonic echolocation; ultrasonic navigation aid; Auditory system; Circuits; Digital signal processing; Digital signal processors; Feedback; Instruments; Navigation; Object detection; Transmitters; Ultrasonic imaging;
Conference_Titel :
Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, 2001. IMTC 2001. Proceedings of the 18th IEEE
Conference_Location :
Budapest
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-6646-8
DOI :
10.1109/IMTC.2001.929462
