Voice Assisted Guide for the Blind using QR Codes and Wearable Smartphones

Visual disabilities are a recurring issue that negatively impacts many lives. Many existing public spaces are inaccessible to blind people. Although, many studies aim at assistive technology solutions, scalability of such solutions remains a challenge. Thus, the aim of this study is to develop a scalable solution to improving the accessibility of public spaces for blind people via a voice assisted guide mobile application system. The system is based on a pair of QR code reading and planning apps. The QR reader uses the built-in camera to read QR codes and output auditory cues for the blind users with one-touch operation. The QR planner allows other users to customize a given space with contextual QR code messages for guiding the blind user as they navigate the space. The flexibility of the apps' potential applications is demonstrated through case simulations along with analysis of the operating parameters that are hoped to enable wide scale deployment in various public spaces.