A ground and obstacle detection algorithm for the visually impaired

In order to provide the visually impaired with efficient aid, an intelligent aid system to detect ground and obstacle is necessary. In this paper, a new seeded region growing algorithm to detect ground and obstacle is put forward. The algorithm is based on three-dimensional depth image obtained from RGB-D camera and attitude angle obtained from attitude angle sensor. Instead of attaching importance to growing threshold, the Sobel edges of image and the boundaries of region are adequately considered in the algorithm to improve detection accuracy. Seeds are chosen according to the edges of image, and the stop of growing refers to the Sobel edges of image and growing threshold. The ground and obstacle are roughly detected after region growing, however, all of the regions are not intended. Therefore, regions are combined or excluded according to their boundaries. The results of the algorithm tell the user where ground and obstacles are. The experiments in different environment are presented in the paper, and demonstrate that the algorithm achieves qualified accuracy and speed.