Smart Glasses : dispositivo vestível em forma de óculos para auxiliar deficientes visuais na detecção de obstáculos

Abstract

Data from the World Health Organization shows that all over the world, 39 half a million people are blind and 246 million have low vision. In Brazil, according to research from the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics, half million people are blind. In this context, social inclusion and development of accessibility tools help these people with mobility problems. However, there are difficulties in the identification of obstacles localized above the waist-level, like walls, columns, street lamps, tree branches, and others. These obstacles aren't easily identified by common canes used by visually impaired people and as a result of this limitation, accidents are very common. Therefore, we present a prototype version of a wearable device in the form of glasses that detects obstacles localized above the waist-level, with the help of an infrared sensor and a position sensor to capture if the user's head movements won't generate a false positive or negative. For that, we applied a Kalman filter, to smooth noise. Furthermore, we have an Android app available, which the user can choose between three feedback options to be notified about obstacles. To collect result data, we made experiments in both the lab and usability tests. Thus, the proposed technology reached its results with 93% sensibility and 95% specificity.