Blind Guardian: A Sonar-Based Solution for Avoiding Collisions with the Real World

Sightless navigation is an ever-present issue that affects a great part of the population. The affected include permanent or temporarily blind individuals, persons walking in the dark, and users of immersive virtual environments using real walking for navigation. This paper presents an alternative solution to this problem, which relies on a simple wearable device based on ultrasonic waves to detect obstacles and on vibrotactile feedback to warn the user of nearby obstacles. In the following pages, we describe the design and implementation of this apparatus, called the Blind Guardian. We conducted user tests with 29 subjects in a controlled environment. Results demonstrated the potential of Blind Guardian for future use in real life situations, as well as for immersive virtual reality applications based on the use of head-mounted displays.