Table 4.
Comparison with navigation systems developed in the last decade for visually impaired people.
References | Year | System | Cost | Accuracy | Testing | Limitations | |||
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Indoor/outdoor | Tested by | Test | Feedback | ||||||
[23] | 2003 | NavBelt and the GuideCane | High | Good | Both | Blindfolded | Obstacle avoidance and natural walking | Binaural feedback system and haptic feedback | Ultrasonic sensor cannot detect all objects under all conditions, NavBelt is slow but GuideCane is fast; however, a number of sensors need more power. |
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[24] | 2007 | Ultrasonic sensor | Medium | Low | Indoor | Blindfolded | Task completion | Vibrotactile | Needs some surface for producing distance output; sound waves get absorbed in some surfaces like sponge, cloth, skin, and so forth. |
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[25] | 2011 | Hybrid ultrasonic, camera, and eBox | Medium | Indoor | Blindfolded | Obstacle avoidance and recognition | Voice | Not tested in outdoors, difficult to manage multiple sensors. Ultrasonic sensor has limitations of giving false data for some surfaces discussed before. | |
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[27] | 2012 | Wearable Navigation System using SLAM | Medium | Medium | Both | Blindfolded | Path following | Verbal feedback | Complex computation for SLAM using landmarks. |
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[28] | 2012 | Electronic cane | High | Good | Indoor | Blindfolded | Obstacle avoidance | Verbal feedback | Five sensors are integrated to gather obstacles' data; therefore, malfunctioning of any one of them can cause system failure. |
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[29] | 2013 | Smartphone based navigation assistance | Low | Medium | Outdoors | Blindfolded | Obstacle avoidance | Verbal feedback | Training data is required and robust obstacle detection is required. |
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[26] | 2013 | Hybrid, Infrared, and ultrasonic | Low | Both | Blindfolded | Obstacle avoidance | Vibrations | Infrared sensor is unable to work under strong sunlight; similarly, ultrasonic sensors get effected by loud environmental noises such as hissing sound produced by air houses. | |
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[30] | 2015 | Robot Guide | High | Medium | Indoor | Blind | Natural walking | Verbal feedback | A big robot that needs space for its own movement can only walk on smooth surfaces. |
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[8] | 2015 | Infrared sensor | Low | Low | Indoor | Blindfolded | Travel time | Melodies | Infrared sensor alone is not reliable because of its blindness under strong light and rough surfaces. |
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Our system | 2015 | Combined vision techniques and depth map from Kinect | Low | Good | Both | Blind and blindfolded | Obstacle avoidance and walking in natural environment | Verbal feedback | Infrared sensor is unable to work under strong sunlight. |