Affiliations: [a] The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA | [b] Department of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: J. Coughlan, The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, 2318 Fillmore St., San Francisco, CA 94115, USA. E-mail: Coughlan@ski.org.
Abstract: Urban intersections are the most dangerous parts of a blind or visually impaired pedestrian's travel. A prerequisite for safely crossing an intersection is entering the crosswalk in the right direction and avoiding the danger of straying outside the crosswalk. This paper presents a proof of concept system that seeks to provide such alignment information. The system consists of a standard mobile phone with built-in camera that uses computer vision algorithms to detect any crosswalk visible in the camera's field of view; audio feedback from the phone then helps the user align him/herself to it. Our prototype implementation on a Nokia mobile phone runs in about one second per image, and is intended for eventual use in a mobile phone system that will aid blind and visually impaired pedestrians in navigating traffic intersections.
Keywords: Blindness, visual impairments, navigation, computer vision, cell phone, mobile phone, camera phone
