Development of a Pedestrian Navigation System for Visually Impaired People with QZSS and RFID

Abstract

It is extremely hard for visually impaired people to walk unknown places. Using a white cane or taking a guide dog is required by law when they go outside. However, even if they are used to using the white cane or familiar with a guide dog, they usually hesitate to go to unknown places because these canes or dogs don't have any ability to navigate the user. In this research, we propose a pedestrian navigation system named "PULLDOG" for visually impaired people with UHF band RFID technology and quasi-zenith satellite system (QZSS) Michibiki. This system calculates as safe routes as possible from current position to destination, such as giving priority to braille block way. We investigated accuracy of positional estimation with RFID and QZSS and implemented the route-search algorithm based on Dijkstra's method. In this paper, the system outline and the results of investigations are described. Additionally, the results and feedbacks from demonstration experiments at Keio Kitano station are also reported.