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Project

#138 Enhancing the Safety of the Carnegie Mellon Campus for Blind Navigators

Principal Investigator
Bernadine Dias
Status
Completed
Start Date
Jan. 1, 2014
End Date
Dec. 31, 2014
Project Type
Research Advanced
Grant Program
MAP-21 TSET - Tier 1 (2012 - 2016)
Grant Cycle
2014 TSET UTC
Visibility
Public

Abstract

Safety is a primary concern for the visually impaired when navigating unfamiliar urban environments. Since most environments are constructed to be easily navigated by sighted people, people with disabilities have to often seek help and use secondary cues to navigate many urban environments safely. This work aims to start addressing this safety problem by exploring a variety of tools and frameworks that can enhance the safety of blind adults navigating the Carnegie Mellon campus and its connections to the surrounding community. We envision a suite of tools accessible via ubiquitous smartphones and personal computers that can assist blind navigators with navigation tasks. By enhancing safe navigation in this pilot site, we will be poised to expand the application to other locations in the city of Pittsburgh and beyond.
Description
Planned research outcomes for this work include exploration of strategies and initial prototyping of some tools that enable pre-trip route planning for blind travelers, enhance navigation assistance for blind travelers during their travel, and provide options for seeking help when blind travelers are in unsafe or difficult situations. Towards this end a significant assessment of needs has been carried out by interviewing, surveying, and observing several relevant experts and targeted users of our technology. Based on these findings, initial strategies and prototypes have been developed to address the pre-trip route planning and navigation assistance components of our planned outcomes.
Timeline
January 2013 - December 2013
Strategic Description / RD&T

    
Deployment Plan

    
-

    
Expected Outcomes/Impacts

    
A significant impact of our work to date has been documenting the needs and challenges of blind travelers. We have also made significant progress in exploring the role of mobile and computing technology to enhance the navigation capability and thereby the independence and safety of visually impaired people.

    
Expected Outputs

    

    
TRID

    


    
Individuals Involved

    

        
            

                Email
                Name
                Affiliation
                Role
                Position
            

        
        
            
                

                    mbdias@ri.cmu.edu
                    Dias, Bernadine
                    Robotics Institute
                    PI
                    Faculty - Tenured
                

            
    


    
Budget


    
    
Amount of UTC Funds Awarded
 $50000.00
    
Total Project Budget (from all funding sources)
 $50000.00

    
Documents

    
        

            
                

                    Type
                    Name
                    Uploaded
                

            
            
                
                    
                
                    
                
                    
                    

                        Final Report
                        
                            Towards_Safe_Urban_Navigation.pdf
                        
                        Aug. 23, 2018, 7:21 a.m.
                    

                    
                
                    
                
            
        

    

    
Match Sources

    
        
No match sources!

    


    
Partners

    
        
No partners!