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• BlindPilot: A Robotic Local Navigation System that Leads Blind People to a Landmark Object

  Seita Kayukawa, Tatsuya Ishihara, Hironobu Takagi, Shigeo Morishima, Chieko Asakawa · 2020 · Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '20, Late-Breaking Work)

  Most indoor-navigation research for blind travellers has focused on what the authors call 'global' navigation — getting from a building entrance to a room, gate, or exhibit. The 'last few metres' of the journey, a body-scale interaction with a specific landmark object such as an…

  local navigation · landmark object · blind navigation · indoor navigation · assistive robotics

• Deep Learning Compensation of Rotation Errors During Navigation Assistance for People with Visual Impairments or Blindness

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Sergio Mascetti, Cristian Bernareggi, João Guerreiro, Uran Oh, Chieko Asakawa · 2019 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS)

  This paper addresses a critical but often overlooked problem in turn-by-turn navigation assistance for people with visual impairments or blindness (VIB): rotation errors at turning points. While much navigation research focuses on improving localization accuracy, this work…

  navigation assistance · visual impairment · blindness · deep learning · turn-by-turn navigation

• NavCog3 in the Wild: Large-scale Blind Indoor Navigation Assistant with Semantic Features

  Daisuke Sato, Uran Oh, João Guerreiro, Dragan Ahmetovic, Kakuya Naito, Hironobu Takagi, Kris M. Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2019 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS)

  This paper presents NavCog3, a smartphone-based indoor navigation assistant for people with visual impairments that combines high-accuracy Bluetooth beacon localization with rich semantic environmental features. The system uses off-the-shelf BLE beacons installed in the…

  indoor navigation · visual impairment · blindness · Bluetooth beacons · localization

• SafeExit4All: An Inclusive Indoor Emergency Evacuation System for People With Disabilities

  Seyed Ali Cheraghi, Anup Sharma, Vinod Namboodiri, Güler Arsal · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents SafeExit4All, a smartphone-based emergency evacuation system designed to help people with disabilities independently find safe exits from indoor spaces during emergencies such as fires, tornadoes, and active shooter situations. The authors identify a critical…

  indoor navigation · emergency evacuation · wayfinding · visual impairment · mobility impairment

• GuideCall: Affordable and Trustworthy Video Call-Based Remote Assistance for People with Visual Impairments

  Naveen M. Ravindran, Seyed Ali Cheraghi, Vinod Namboodiri, Rakesh Babu · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents GuideCall, a free Android application that enables blind or visually impaired (BVI) individuals to get remote visual assistance through video calls with trusted personal contacts. The system addresses two key limitations of existing remote…

  visual impairment · blindness · remote assistance · video calling · assistive technology

• An Independent and Interactive Museum Experience for Blind People

  Saki Asakawa, João Guerreiro, Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Dragan Ahmetovic, Desi Gonzalez, Kris M. Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2019 · Proceedings of the 16th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents a prototype system for supporting independent, interactive museum visits by blind people, deployed and evaluated at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. The system combines indoor navigation with context-aware art appreciation through continuous tracking of…

  museum accessibility · blindness · indoor navigation · BLE beacon · audio description

• Jido: A Conversational Tactile Map for Blind People

  Luis Cavazos Quero, Jorge Iranzo Bartolomé, Dongmyeong Lee, Yerin Lee, Sangwon Lee, Jundong Cho · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This demonstration paper presents Jido, a system that combines a touch-sensitive tactile map with a voice-based conversational agent to help blind people understand and navigate indoor environments. The tactile map is constructed from laser-cut acrylic sheets mounted on a case…

  blindness · tactile maps · voice interaction · indoor navigation · conversational interface

• Go That Way: Exploring Supplementary Physical Movements by a Stationary Robot When Providing Navigation Instructions

  Xiang Zhi Tan, Elizabeth J. Carter, Samantha Reig, Aaron Steinfeld · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper explores how stationary kiosk-type robots might provide navigation instructions to blind people by supplementing verbal directions with physical movements. The work is inspired by a technique used by Orientation and Mobility (O&M) experts called Palm Drawing, in which…

  blindness · human-robot interaction · navigation · haptic feedback · orientation and mobility

• Leveraging Augmented Reality to Create Apps for People with Visual Disabilities: A Case Study in Indoor Navigation

  Chris Yoon, Ryan Louie, Jeremy Ryan, MinhKhang Vu, Hyegi Bang, William Derksen, Paul Ruvolo · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper presents Clew, an iOS app that leverages Apple’s ARKit augmented reality framework to help people who are blind or visually impaired (B/VI) navigate indoor environments — a setting where GPS is unreliable (accuracy drops to ~5m+ indoors). Clew uses visual-inertial…

  augmented reality · indoor navigation · orientation and mobility · blind · low vision

• CaBot: Designing and Evaluating an Autonomous Navigation Robot for Blind People

  João Guerreiro, Daisuke Sato, Saki Asakawa, Huixu Dong, Kris M. Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2019 · Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper presents CaBot (Carry-on roBot), an autonomous suitcase-shaped navigation robot designed to guide blind people to destinations in unfamiliar indoor environments while avoiding obstacles. Unlike smartphone navigation apps that provide turn-by-turn instructions but…

  navigation robot · blind · orientation and mobility · haptic feedback · LiDAR

• Airport Accessibility and Navigation Assistance for People with Visual Impairments

  João Guerreiro, Dragan Ahmetovic, Daisuke Sato, Kris Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2019 · Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper investigates whether a BLE-beacon-based smartphone navigation system can enable visually impaired travelers to move through an airport independently — a setting where they are currently required to rely on airline-provided sighted escorts to reach the gate, and where…

  airport accessibility · blind navigation · indoor navigation · orientation and mobility · visual impairment

• BBeep: A Sonic Collision Avoidance System for Blind Travellers and Nearby Pedestrians

  Seita Kayukawa, Keita Higuchi, João Guerreiro, Shigeo Morishima, Yoichi Sato, Kris Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2019 · Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19)

  This paper presents BBeep, an assistive suitcase-shaped system designed to help blind travellers navigate crowded public spaces such as international airports, train stations, and shopping malls. The authors argue that existing blind-navigation research has focused largely on…

  blind navigation · obstacle avoidance · collision avoidance · assistive technology · wearable technology

• WeAllWalk: An Annotated Dataset of Inertial Sensor Time Series from Blind Walkers

  Germán H. Flores, Roberto Manduchi · 2018 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS)

  This paper introduces WeAllWalk, an annotated dataset of inertial sensor time series collected from blind and sighted walkers navigating complex indoor routes. Ten blind volunteers (seven using a long cane, one using a guide dog, and two alternating between both) and five…

  indoor navigation · blindness · inertial sensing · step counting · turn detection

• How Context and User Behavior Affect Indoor Navigation Assistance for Blind People

  João Guerreiro, Eshed Ohn-Bar, Dragan Ahmetovic, Kris Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2018 · Proceedings of the 15th International Web for All Conference (W4A 2018)

  This short paper presents a fine-grained thematic analysis of user behaviour during indoor assisted navigation to understand when and why navigation errors occur even when the underlying localisation system is accurate. The research uses NavCog, a smartphone-based indoor…

  indoor navigation · blind · orientation and mobility · guide dog · white cane

• Turn Right: Analysis of Rotation Errors in Turn-by-Turn Navigation for Individuals with Visual Impairments

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Uran Oh, Sergio Mascetti, Chieko Asakawa · 2018 · Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18)

  This paper examines a frequently overlooked problem in navigation assistance for blind and visually impaired (BVI) people: how accurately users execute rotation instructions during turn-by-turn guidance. While much research has focused on improving localization accuracy (knowing…

  navigation · blindness · orientation and mobility · indoor navigation · assistive technology

• Crowdsourcing the Installation and Maintenance of Indoor Localization Infrastructure to Support Blind Navigation

  Cole Gleason, Dragan Ahmetovic, Saiph Savage, Carlos Toxtli, Carl Posthuma, Chieko Asakawa, Kris M. Kitani, Jeffrey P. Bigham · 2018 · Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT)

  This paper introduces LuzDeploy, a physical crowdsourcing system that coordinates non-expert volunteers to install and maintain Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon infrastructure for indoor navigation systems used by blind people. The central problem is that indoor navigation…

  indoor navigation · crowdsourcing · Bluetooth beacons · blind users · wayfinding

• The Present and Future of Museum Accessibility for People with Visual Impairments

  Saki Asakawa, João Guerreiro, Dragan Ahmetovic, Kris M. Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2018 · Proceedings of the 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '18, Poster)

  This short ASSETS '18 poster paper is the formative survey that motivated much of the later Miraikan and CaBot museum-accessibility work from the same research group. The authors conducted in-person semi-structured interviews with 19 people with visual impairments (16 totally…

  museum accessibility · visual impairment · indoor navigation · tactile replicas · audio description

• Variability in Reactions to Instructional Guidance during Smartphone-Based Assisted Navigation of Blind Users

  Eshed Ohn-Bar, João Guerreiro, Kris Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2018 · Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT)

  This paper takes a close, sensor-level look at something most indoor-navigation research glosses over: how differently individual blind users actually react to the same spoken instruction. The authors instrumented a smartphone-and-BLE-beacon turn-by-turn system (based on NavCog)…

  indoor navigation · turn-by-turn navigation · blindness · visual impairment · assistive technology

• Modeling Expertise in Assistive Navigation Interfaces for Blind People

  Eshed Ohn-Bar, João Guerreiro, Dragan Ahmetovic, Kris M. Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2018 · Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI)

  This short IUI paper asks a question most assistive-navigation research leaves unasked: what happens as a blind user becomes an expert on a route? Existing smartphone guidance apps deliver the same instruction set on a user's tenth trip down a corridor as on their first,…

  blind navigation · indoor navigation · turn-by-turn navigation · visual impairment · blindness

• Environmental Factors in Indoor Navigation Based on Real-World Trajectories of Blind Users

  Hernisa Kacorri, Eshed Ohn-Bar, Kris M. Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2018 · Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper addresses a methodological blind spot in blind-navigation research: studies typically report localization accuracy and completion time, but say almost nothing about how the physical environment itself shapes where users go wrong. The authors argue that the same…

  indoor navigation · turn-by-turn navigation · blindness · visual impairment · assistive technology

• Achieving Practical and Accurate Indoor Navigation for People with Visual Impairments

  Dragan Ahmetovic, Masayuki Murata, Cole Gleason, Erin Brady, Hironobu Takagi, Kris Kitani, Chieko Asakawa · 2017 · Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper presents improvements to the NavCog indoor navigation system that achieve sub-meter localization accuracy for blind pedestrians while significantly reducing the infrastructure cost of deploying BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) beacon networks. GPS provides outdoor…

  indoor navigation · visual impairment · blindness · BLE beacons · Bluetooth Low Energy

• Assessment of Semantic Taxonomies for Blind Indoor Navigation Based on a Shopping Center Use Case

  J. Eduardo Pérez, Myriam Arrue, Masatomo Kobayashi, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa · 2017 · Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This paper investigates what environmental information is needed to support effective indoor navigation for visually impaired people, and whether existing geographic data specifications provide adequate semantic vocabularies for this purpose. The researchers surveyed three…

  indoor navigation · blindness · wayfinding · location-based services · semantic taxonomy

• LuzDeploy: A Collective Action System for Installing Navigation Infrastructure for Blind People

  Cole Gleason, Dragan Ahmetovic, Carlos Toxtli, Saiph Savage, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Chieko Asakawa · 2017 · Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

  This demonstration paper presents LuzDeploy, a system designed to solve a practical bottleneck in deploying indoor navigation infrastructure for blind people: the difficulty of recruiting, training, and coordinating enough personnel to install Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons…

  blindness · indoor navigation · crowdsourcing · BLE beacons · assistive technology

• Identifying Visual Cues to Improve Independent Indoor Navigation for Blind Individuals

  Cameron Tyler Cassidy · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This student research competition paper proposes a novel approach to indoor navigation for blind individuals that focuses on providing environmental awareness and a "sense of space" rather than traditional point-to-point directions. The author argues that most existing…

  indoor navigation · blindness · computer vision · eye tracking · wayfinding

• Crowdsourcing the Installation and Maintenance of Indoor Navigation Infrastructure

  Cole Gleason · 2017 · Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '17)

  This student research competition paper presents LuzDeploy, a system designed to solve a major barrier to the adoption of indoor navigation systems for people with visual impairments: the high cost and expertise required to install and maintain the necessary infrastructure.…

  indoor navigation · crowdsourcing · Bluetooth beacons · blindness · wayfinding