A wearable technology to negotiate surface discontinuities for the blind and low vision

One of the greatest challenges to independence for the blind and low vision (BLV) individuals are difficulties in self-navigation. This paper presents a wearable assistive technology to augment the perception of the BLVs along their navigational pathway. The research addresses specifically the challenge of negotiating surface discontinuities typically found within urban areas. A lightweight, small and unobtrusive wearable prototype is developed, and it utilizes a stereo camera to collect depth data from the navigational pathway. A depth profile is proposed to reduce the dimension of depth map computed from the image pair, and a deep belief network is then assembled to classify the depth profiles such that appropriate haptic feedback can be communicated to the user.