Basic Research on the Method of Presenting Distance Information to the Blind by Means of Gait Measurement

Chikamune Wada；Yukinobu Sugimura；Takafumi Ienaga；Yoshihiko Kimuro

Distance ； Blind person ； Gait analysis

Journal of Medical and Biological Engineering

31卷4期（2011 / 08 / 01）

283 - 287

英文

In order to realize a navigation system for the blind, there are two main problems to be solved: one is to measure the present position of a blind person, and the other is to notify the blind on the route to his/her desired destination. As for the first problem, we are developing a measuring device by means of which gait information can be obtained that cannot be obtained by existing devices in order to assist walking rehabilitation. Our newly developed device is able to measure the step length and present position. As for the second problem, a new notification method is proposed. According to past results, this notification method, which counts the number of steps remaining until the blind reaches the destination, can guide the blind easily because the number of steps is easy to count. Based on the abovementioned considerations, we tried to realize a new guidance system which would inform the blind of the remaining distance to the destination as the number of remaining steps after measuring the present position. In this paper, we propose a new guidance system and describe our assessment of the feasibility of this new method. The experimental results indicate that our device could measure the step length with a small measurement error, and that our new guidance method guided the subjects correctly. We conclude that our new guidance method would be useful and that it can be realized.