A LIDAR-based Navigation System for the Visually Impaired
ABSTRACT A common issue faced by people who are blind or visually impaired is the difficulty of navigating and traveling through unfamiliar outdoor and indoor environments. The current state of the art solutions to this problem consist of very expensive guide dogs and simple canes for obstacle detection. The space has seen few successful commercial technology solutions. The team proposes the development of a LIDAR based navigation system with auditory feedback which would allow the blind to navigate in unfamiliar environments and perform basic obstacle avoidance. The proposed solution would be a high-tech, lower cost solution to traditional guide dog based navigation.
Note: The entirety of this paper can be viewed at the bottom of this page.
Note: The entirety of this paper can be viewed at the bottom of this page.
Demo
Below is a video demonstrating our system's ability to read environmental position data from the LIDAR over Ethernet and then display that data in a simple text-based visualizer. A hand is repeatedly waved in front of the sensor from left to right to show real-time processing of data.