The Chatty Environment - A World Explorer for the Visually Impaired

Ubiquitous computing systems have often suffered the criticism of providing only marginal value and not justifying the serious amount of money spent for research in this area [1]. In this extended abstract, we describe the vision and the prototype of a ubiquitous computing environment for visually impaired people. The aim is to help them orient themselves in new, unknown environments and thereby enable them to lead a more independent life.