Verbal guidance rules for a localized wayfinding aid intended for blind-pedestrians in urban areas

Automatic wayfinding verbal aids for blind pedestrians in simple and structured urban areas are claimed to rely on specific database features and guidance functions (i.e., instructions and spatial information provided at specific places). This paper reports an experiment in which these requirements for such areas, and for complex and unstructured urban areas, were tested by 7 cane- and 3 dog-users. Very few hesitations and errors along with the need for few modifications of the verbal guidance rules and for a one-meter localization device for traversing crosswalks were found. Further research issues for designing a localized verbal navigational aid are also presented (i.e., extension/diversification of the population and gradual introduction of the interface).

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