Department of Business Technologies and Entrepreneurship, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, 10223, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Norwegian Centre for E-health Research, University Hospital of North Norway, 9019, Tromsø, Norway.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Jan 23;20(3):636. doi: 10.3390/s20030636.
Currently, several outdoor navigation and orientation electronic traveling aid (ETA) solutions for visually impaired (VI) people are commercially available or in active development. This paper's survey of blind experts has shown that after outdoor navigation, the second most important ETA feature for VI persons is indoor navigation and orientation (in public institutions, supermarkets, office buildings, homes, etc.). VI persons need ETA for orientation and navigation in unfamiliar indoor environments with embedded features for the detection and recognition of obstacles (not only on the ground but also at head level) and desired destinations such as rooms, staircases, and elevators. The development of such indoor navigation systems, which do not have Global Positioning System (GPS) locational references, is challenging and requires an overview and evaluation of existing systems with different navigation technologies. This paper presents an evaluation and comparison of state-of-the-art indoor navigation solutions, and the research implications provide a summary of the critical observations, some insights, and directions for further developments. The paper maps VI needs in relation to research and development (R&D) trends using the evaluation criteria deemed most important by blind experts.
目前，有几种针对视障人士的户外导航和定位电子出行辅助 (ETA) 解决方案已经在商业上可用或正在积极开发中。本论文对视障专家的调查表明，在户外导航之后，视障人士第二重要的 ETA 功能是室内导航和定位（在公共机构、超市、办公楼、家庭等）。视障人士需要 ETA 在不熟悉的室内环境中进行导航和定位，这些环境需要嵌入用于检测和识别障碍物（不仅在地面上，还在头顶上）和期望目的地（如房间、楼梯和电梯）的功能。这种没有全球定位系统 (GPS) 位置参考的室内导航系统的开发具有挑战性，需要对具有不同导航技术的现有系统进行全面评估和比较。本文对最先进的室内导航解决方案进行了评估和比较，并通过使用盲专家认为最重要的评估标准，研究意义总结了关键观察、一些见解和进一步发展的方向。本文通过评估标准来映射视障人士的需求与研究和开发 (R&D) 趋势之间的关系。
