A Survey of Current Aids for Visually Impaired Persons

The lost ability of our eyes to perceive visual information leads to the state of Visual Impairment. Among many challenges of day to day activity faced, is navigation through the environment safely. To assist Visual Impaired persons a number of aids ranging from specialized trainings, GPS devices, Electronic Travel Aids, are currently available. In this work, these aids are surveyed and discussed. In particular, recent advancements in the development of Electronic Travel Aids(ETA) are discussed in detail. The role of ergonomic factors for the success of ETA devices is also stressed and discussed. With the advancement in sensor technology these ETA devices hold much potential. With this work, an insight into these developments will be gained to motivate future course of work to overcome existing drawbacks and include new cutting edge sensor technology for the betterment of the tools available for Visual Impaired persons.