Wearable Navigation Device Using Tactile Feedback for Obstacle Avoidance
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Legacy travel assistance systems rely on network-accessible maps that are not updated with real-time changes, fail to identify obstacles, and distract users with visual representations, posing risks to impaired users navigating through unfamiliar or hazardous environments.
Innovation Solution
A wearable personal navigation device system that uses proximity technologies, including beacons and sensors, to provide tactile and auditory directions, modifying navigation paths based on real-time data from remote devices to avoid obstacles and adapt to user preferences and environmental conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If visual representations from network-accessible maps are used for navigation, then route guidance is provided, but user distraction and safety risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces visual map representations with tactile feedback mechanisms including haptic actuators that provide directional guidance through touch, and auditory signals that convey navigation information through sound. This substitution eliminates the need for users to visually process map data, removing the distraction hazard while preserving navigation functionality.
2Loss of information
If static network-accessible maps are used, then basic route information is provided, but real-time obstacle detection is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates multiple sensor arrays (cameras, LIDAR, ultrasonic sensors, infrared sensors) that continuously scan the environment and provide real-time feedback about obstacles, terrain conditions, and navigation path safety. This feedback loop allows the system to detect and respond to dynamic obstacles that static maps cannot identify, significantly improving navigation reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary scanning of the navigation path using sensors before the user commits to a route. By预先 detecting obstacles and analyzing path safety conditions, the system can warn users in advance or automatically adjust the navigation path to avoid hazardous areas, preventing rather than merely reacting to potential problems.
3Measurement precision
If detailed environmental scanning is performed, then obstacle detection accuracy improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The environmental scanning system is divided into multiple specialized sensor arrays, each optimized for specific detection tasks: cameras for visual recognition, LIDAR for distance measurement, ultrasonic sensors for proximity detection, and infrared sensors for thermal signatures. This segmentation allows each component to be relatively simple while the collective system achieves high detection accuracy through coordinated operation of multiple specialized subsystems.
Data Source
AI summary
Apparatuses, systems and methods associated with a travel assistance system. A wearable personal navigation device may include a communication system, an indicator, and a processor coupled to the communication system and the indicator. The processor may be configured to generate a request for a navigation path from a location to a destination and transmit the request to a node of the network. The processor may be configured to determine the direction of travel from the location of the user based on a first navigation path received from the node of the network in response to the request, wherein the first navigation path includes at least one modification from a second navigation path, wherein the modification is based on data received by the network from a remote device that indicates an object, and cause the indicator to indicate the direction of travel. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.