Mobile Assistive Technologies for Visual Impaired Users: A Survey

In this article, we summarize some of the recent advancements in assistive technologies that are designed for people with visual impairments (VI) and blind people. Present technology enables applications to be actively disseminated and to efficiently operate on handheld mobile devices. These applications include also those that require high computational requirements. As a consequent, digital travel aids, visual sensing modules, text-to-speech applications, navigational assistance tools, and the combination with diverse assistive haptic devices are becoming consolidated with typical mobile devices. This direction has opened diversity of new perspectives for practical training and rehabilitation of people with VI. The aim of this article is to give an overview about the recent developments of assistive applications designed for people with VI. In conclusion, we recommend designing a unified robust system for people with VI which provides the support of the different kind of services.