Wearable Feedback Unit for Visually Impaired Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing solutions for visually impaired individuals with moderate impairment provide excessive visual information, overwhelming their limited visual system and leading to fatigue and reduced navigation resilience.
Innovation Solution
A wearable feedback unit placed on the head of the visually impaired user, which processes navigation information to output relevant visual guidance instructions, including light guiding strip, visual cues signaling direction, milestones, tunnel, contour highlight, surface highlight, and object trajectory modes, to guide movement effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If full visual information is acquired and processed by video cameras and processing units, then the amount of information available to the user is maximized, but the user's limited visual system becomes overwhelmed leading to fatigue and reduced navigation resilience
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the visual information processing by dividing the field of view into multiple zones (e.g., central zone, peripheral zones) and applying different processing strategies to each zone. High-acuity processing is applied to the central zone where the user has better vision, while simplified or selective processing is applied to peripheral zones, thereby reducing overall information load while maintaining navigation safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by enhancing visual information selectively in specific regions of the user's field of view based on their visual capabilities. Areas corresponding to the user's functional vision are enhanced with detailed processed images, while areas corresponding to impaired vision receive reduced or simplified information, optimizing the balance between information provision and user comfort.
2Manufacturing precision
If image processing is applied to correct visual defects such as magnification, remapping, and edge enhancement, then the quality of displayed images is improved, but the complexity of the processing system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic image processing where the processing parameters (magnification, remapping, edge enhancement) are adjusted in real-time based on the user's current visual conditions, gaze direction, and environmental context. This dynamic approach allows the system to apply complex processing only when and where needed, reducing the average processing complexity while maintaining high image quality in critical regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-processing images to identify and prioritize regions of interest before final display processing. By pre-identifying critical areas that require enhancement and filtering out less important details in advance, the system reduces the computational burden of subsequent real-time processing while maintaining essential image quality.
Data Source
AI summary
This patent relates to a feedback unit for visual guiding the movement of a visually impaired user having moderate impairment, comprising means to receive navigation information from an environment processing unit; a processing module for processing the navigation information and outputting visual guidance instructions to the user; a visual representation module displaying the visual guidance instructions to the user, which include: visual guiding modes along the path: light guiding strip, visual cues signalling the direction, milestones visual, tunnel; and visual guiding modes in respect to a selected obstacle or point of interest: contour highlight, surface highlight, object trajectory visual mode.The patent further relates to a wearable device comprising the feedback unit and three alternative methods for visual guiding.