NavCog3: Large-Scale Blind Indoor Navigation Assistant with Semantic Features in the Wild

DAISUKE SATO, IBM Research Tokyo, Japan URAN OH, Carnegie Mellon University, USA JOÃO GUERREIRO, Carnegie Mellon University, USA DRAGAN AHMETOVIC, Carnegie Mellon University, USA KAKUYA NAITO, Shimizu Corporation, Japan HIRONOBU TAKAGI, IBM Research Tokyo, Japan KRIS M. KITANI, Carnegie Mellon University, USA CHIEKO ASAKAWA, IBM Research, Carnegie Mellon University, USA NavCog3 is a smartphone turn-by-turn navigation assistant, specifically designed to enable independent navigation for individuals with visual impairments in unfamiliar environments. Using off-the-shelf Bluetooth beacons installed in the surroundings, and a commodity smartphone carried by the user, NavCog3 achieves unparalleled localization accuracy in real-world large-scale scenarios. Leveraging its accurate localization capabilities, NavCog3 guides the user through the environment and signals the presence of semantic features and points of interest in the vicinity (e.g., doorways, shops, etc.). To assess the capability of NavCog3 to promote independent mobility of individuals with visual impairments, we deployed and evaluated the system in two challenging real-world scenarios. The first scenario demonstrates the scalability of the system, which was permanently installed in a five-story shopping mall, spanning three buildings and a public underground area. During the study, 10 participants traversed three fixed routes, and 43 participants navigated free choice routes across the environment. The second scenario validates the system usability in the wild, in a hotel complex temporarily instrumented with NavCog3 during a conference for individuals with visual impairments. Almost 14.2 hours of system usage data were collected from 37 unique users who performed 280 travels across the environment, for a total of 30,200 meters traversed. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Accessibility technologies; • Social and professional topics → People with disabilities; • Information systems→ Location based services; Additional