Related papers: Detect and Approach: Close-Range Navigation Suppor…
Autonomous maritime surveillance and target vessel identification in environments where Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are not available is critical for a number of applications such as search and rescue and threat detection.…
Visual impairment affects the ability of people to live a life like normal people. Such people face challenges in performing activities of daily living, such as reading, writing, traveling and participating in social gatherings. Many…
People with visual impairments face numerous challenges when interacting with their environment. Our objective is to develop a device that facilitates communication between individuals with visual impairments and their surroundings. The…
Parcel lockers have become an increasingly prevalent last-mile delivery method. Yet, a recent study revealed its accessibility challenges to blind and low-vision people (BLV). Informed by the study, we designed FetchAid, a standalone…
Our work aims to develop new assistive technologies that enable blind or low vision (BLV) people to explore and analyze data readily. At present, barriers exist for BLV people to explore and analyze data, restricting access to government,…
Purpose: Navigating urban environments poses significant challenges for individuals who are blind or have low vision, especially in areas affected by construction. Construction zones introduce hazards such as uneven surfaces, barriers,…
People with visual impairments (PwVI) often have difficulties navigating through unfamiliar indoor environments. However, current wayfinding tools are fairly limited. In this short paper, we present our in-progress work on a wayfinding…
Consider an assistive system that guides visually impaired users through speech and haptic feedback to their destination. Existing robotic and ubiquitous navigation technologies (e.g., portable, ground, or wearable systems) often operate in…
While there is no replacement for the learned expertise, devotion, and social benefits of a guide dog, there are cases in which a robot navigation assistant could be helpful for individuals with blindness or low vision (BLV). This study…
It is estimated that 285 million people globally are visually impaired. A majority of these people live in developing countries and are among the elderly population. One of the most difficult tasks faced by the visually impaired is…
Curbs -- the edge of a raised sidewalk at the point where it meets a street -- crucial in urban environments where they help delineate safe pedestrian zones, from dangerous vehicular lanes. However, curbs themselves are significant…
According to WHO statistics, the number of visually impaired people is increasing annually. One of the most critical necessities for visually impaired people is the ability to navigate safely. This paper proposes a navigation system based…
Searching for objects in unfamiliar scenarios is a challenging task for blind people. It involves specifying the target object, detecting it, and then gathering detailed information according to the user's intent. However, existing…
Recent studies have focused on facilitating perception and outdoor navigation for people with blindness or some form of vision loss. However, a significant portion of these studies is centered around treatment and vision rehabilitation,…
Blind and low-vision (BLV) people face many challenges when venturing into public environments, often wishing it were easier to get help from people nearby. Ironically, while many sighted individuals are willing to help, such interactions…
Object recognition technologies hold the potential to support blind and low-vision people in navigating the world around them. However, the gap between benchmark performances and practical usability remains a significant challenge. This…
GPS and smartphones enable users to place location-based annotations, capturing rich environmental context. Previous research demonstrates that blind and low vision (BLV) people can use annotations to explore unfamiliar areas. However,…
Large Vision-Language Models (LVLMs) demonstrate a promising direction for assisting individuals with blindness or low-vision (BLV). Yet, measuring their true utility in real-world scenarios is challenging because evaluating whether their…
Sight is essential for humans to navigate their surrounding environment independently. Tasks that are simple for the sighted are often close to impossible for the visually impaired. Throughout the years, many researchers dedicated their…
While commendable progress has been made in user-centric research on mobile assistive systems for blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals, references that directly inform robot navigation design remain rare. To bridge this gap, we conducted…