Development of a Pedestrian Navigation System for the Visually Impaired with QZSS and RFID

It is extremely hard for the visually impaired to walk strange places because it is very difficult to know where they are and the direction to move toward the destination. In addition the existing navigation system is not easy to use for the visually impaired because it is developed for sighted people. In this paper, the pedestrian navigation system for the visually impaired was developed. The high-precision positioning by UHF band RFID and QZSS (Quasi-Zenith Satellite System) called "MICHIBIKI" and the route search algorithms for the visually impaired were studied. The navigation system is operated just two buttons and voice recognition for easy operation. The visually impaired gets the route guidance by voice from the speaker of the system. The results of substantiative experiments with the system inside and outside a building of railway station were also reported in this paper.