A Kinect based vibrotactile feedback system to assist the visually impaired

This paper presents a Microsoft Kinect based vibrotactile feedback system to aid in navigation for the visually impaired. The lightweight wearable system interprets the visual scene and presents obstacle distance and characteristic information to the user. The scene is converted into a distance map using the Kinect, then processed and interpreted using an Intel Next Unit of Computing (NUC). That information is then converted via a microcontroller into vibrotactile feedback, presented to the user through two four-by-four vibration motor arrays woven into gloves. The system is shown to successfully identify, track, and present closest objects, closest humans, multiple humans, and perform distance measurements.