Gestural Environmental Feedback System for Visually Impaired Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Blind or visually impaired individuals face difficulties navigating their environment due to the lack of detailed information provided by traditional navigation methods, which do not offer real-time feedback about the location and type of objects surrounding them.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising processors, tactile input hardware, sensing devices, and memory modules that receive gestural inputs to provide environmental feedback, allowing users to request information about points of interest in specific directions using a mobile device with auxiliary sensing apparatus, offering feedback through auditory, tactile, or visual means.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If traditional navigation methods (cane) are used, then the device complexity is low, but the information feedback about the environment is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple sensing devices (cameras, LIDAR, ultrasonic sensors, GPS) with a mobile device and processing system into an integrated environmental feedback system. This merging of multiple information-gathering components resolves the contradiction by providing comprehensive environmental information while managing system complexity through integrated architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs multiple types of sensing devices that serve different functions (visual detection, depth measurement, obstacle detection, location tracking) within a single integrated system. This multi-functionality approach allows the system to provide diverse environmental information without requiring separate dedicated devices for each sensing modality.
2Loss of information
If detailed environmental information is provided continuously, then the information feedback is comprehensive, but the energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system processes and provides environmental information in response to specific user gestures rather than continuously. The mobile device receives gestural inputs and triggers environmental feedback at discrete moments, reducing energy consumption while still providing comprehensive information when needed by the user.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows users to control information provision through their own gestures, activating feedback only when the user requests it. This on-demand approach enables comprehensive environmental information to be provided without continuous energy consumption, as the system waits for user initiation.
3Ease of operation
If real-time environmental feedback is provided, then the navigation assistance is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile device serves as an intermediary between the auxiliary sensing apparatus and the user. It receives data from multiple sensing devices, processes the information, and presents it through user-friendly interfaces (display, audio output). This intermediary role simplifies the user interaction while managing the complexity of coordinating multiple sensors.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical navigation aids (cane) with an electronic system using sensors, processors, and digital communication. This substitution provides richer environmental information and real-time feedback while managing complexity through software-based processing rather than mechanical mechanisms.
4Measurement precision
If multiple sensing devices are used, then the measurement precision of environmental detection is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides environmental detection into multiple specialized sensing functions, with each device (camera, LIDAR, ultrasonic sensor, GPS) handling a specific aspect. This segmentation allows each component to optimize for its specific measurement task, improving overall precision while managing complexity through modular functional division.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges multiple specialized sensing devices into an integrated system that shares processing resources and data pathways. By combining these devices under a unified control architecture, the system achieves high measurement precision across multiple modalities while managing overall system complexity through integration.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for providing environmental feedback including one or more processors and a tactile input hardware. The tactile input hardware is communicatively coupled to the one or more processors. The system further includes one or more memory modules communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, one or more sensing devices communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, and machine readable instructions stored in the one or more memory modules that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to receive environmental information from the one or more sensing devices, receive a gestural input on the tactile input hardware, and generate feedback regarding a subset of the environmental information acquired by the one or more sensing devices in response to the gestural input received on the tactile input hardware.