NavTU: Android Navigation App for Thai People with Visual Impairments

This paper introduces a new Android navigation app called NavTU for Thai people with visual impairments. Our NavTU app is designed to promote safe and independent travel for Thai people who are blind or have low vision. It is the integration of the GPS-based and camera-based technologies that not only helps the blind pedestrians navigate outdoors from place to place but also locates obstacles such as concrete electric poles, so that the visually impaired can avoid walking into them. The main advantage of NavTU is that the users are allowed to record their own walking paths to the preferred locations. This enables the blind users to walk through any local roads that might not be shown on Google Maps. The blind pedestrians can plan any outdoor path that is convenient and safe to them. The proposed app has Thai as the natural language interface, so it is easy for Thai people with visual impairments to use.