Zebralocalizer: identification and localization of pedestrian crossings

Independent mobility in unfamiliar environments is a significant challenge for people with severe vision impairment. Among other problems, one specific issue concerns the identification of those road signs that can be recognized by sight only. In this paper we present ZebraLocalizer, an application for mobile devices that identifies zebra crossings and guides the user towards them. Two main problems are discussed in this contribution: the identification and localization of the crosswalks, performed by processing data acquired both from the camera and the accelerometers, and the design of an interaction paradigm specifically addressed to blind users. Experimental results, conducted both on a dataset of images and with blind users, validate the applicability of the proposed solution.

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