Assistive technology for night blindness: a mobile application approach

Night blindness is one of the commonly observed problems of the eyes around the world. The night blindness is estimated to affect 5.2 million preschool-age children. The increase in the night-blind population around the world demands technology assistance to those people for avoiding darkness. Lots of efforts so far have been put up by researchers to address different health issues with several mobile applications for providing assistance to affected people. The mobile application model to assist night-blind person is still one of the unaddressed issues by researchers. In this paper, we propose a mobile application model for night-blind persons to avoid them from travelling in darkness. The proposed application model is based on the difference of current time and sunset time. The proposed application uses difference of time function to proactively alert the night-blind person to reach safer place or destination before sunset. The application is useful for avoiding darkness.

[1]  P. L. White,et al.  National nutrition survey. , 1973, JAMA.

[2]  I. Clare,et al.  The needs of older people with acquired hearing , 2009 .

[3]  D. Geruschat,et al.  Low Vision Mobility Problems: Perceptions of O&M Specialists and Persons with Low Vision , 1992 .

[4]  R Zambrano,et al.  Mobile technologies and empowerment: Enhancing human development through participation and innovation. , 2012 .

[5]  M F Marmor,et al.  An evaluation of night vision mobility aids. , 1983, Ophthalmology.

[6]  H. Werthner,et al.  Assisting Tourists on the Move- An Evaluation of Mobile Tourist Guides , 2008, 2008 7th International Conference on Mobile Business.

[7]  Diane L. Morrissette The Wide Angle Mobility Light: An Aid for Night Blindness , 1983 .

[8]  T. Kuyk,et al.  Environmental variables and mobility performance in adults with low vision. , 1996, Journal of the American Optometric Association.

[9]  C I Howarth,et al.  The efficiency and walking speed of visually impaired people. , 1986, Ergonomics.

[10]  J. M. Mesa,et al.  Cannabis improves night vision: a case study of dark adaptometry and scotopic sensitivity in kif smokers of the Rif mountains of northern Morocco. , 2004, Journal of ethnopharmacology.

[11]  Aharon Kellerman,et al.  Mobile Broadband Services and the Availability of Instant Access to Cyberspace , 2010 .

[12]  R.T. Wacker,et al.  Illumination Characteristics of Mobility Lights , 1990 .

[13]  C Owsley,et al.  'Vision through my aging eyes' revisited. , 1988, Journal of the American Optometric Association.

[14]  Laura Sebastia,et al.  e-Tourism: A Tourist Recommendation and Planning Application , 2008, ICTAI.

[15]  A Kriss,et al.  The infant with nystagmus, normal appearing fundi, but an abnormal ERG. , 1989, Survey of ophthalmology.

[16]  Valérie Gay,et al.  Body Sensor Networks for Mobile Health Monitoring: Experience in Europe and Australia , 2009, 2010 Fourth International Conference on Digital Society.

[17]  Bruce B Blasch,et al.  Improving nighttime mobility in persons with night blindness caused by retinitis pigmentosa: A comparison of two low-vision mobility devices. , 2005, Journal of rehabilitation research and development.

[18]  Katerina Kabassi,et al.  Personalizing recommendations for tourists , 2010, Telematics Informatics.

[19]  Morgan Mw,et al.  Vision through my aging eyes. , 1988 .

[20]  Carlo Rivolta,et al.  Retinitis pigmentosa and allied diseases: numerous diseases, genes, and inheritance patterns. , 2002, Human molecular genetics.

[21]  Yeonjeong Park,et al.  A Pedagogical Framework for Mobile Learning: Categorizing Educational Applications of Mobile Technologies into Four Types. , 2011 .

[22]  Louise Barkhuus,et al.  Empowerment through seamfulness: smart phones in everyday life , 2011, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.