Outdoor Navigation Assistants for Visually Impaired Persons: Problems and Challenges

This article explores the problem of building outdoors navigation assistants for persons with visual impairment (NAVI). A review of the state-of-the-art solutions and frameworks of navigation assistants for persons with visual impairment shows that, although several solutions have been proposed, the functionality of such systems is often limited to obstacle detection and navigation assistance based just on satellite positioning information presented to the user in limited forms. Navigation assistants available to final users are basically the same Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) widely available to everyone else, adding little to meet the necessities of users with visual impairment. We present the requisites of building a NAVI system running on smart glasses integrating all journey stages and exploiting the current technology to its full potential. Accordingly, we identify key technology gaps and areas that need further research to deliver a system with such features.