Smartphone and robot technology creates indoor navigation system for blind

A computer science engineering team at the University of Nevada, Reno have created an indoor navigation system for the visually impaired. The technology utilizes a combination of human-computer interaction and the motion-planning research was used to build a low-cost accessible navigation system, called Navatar, which can run on a standard smartphone. The navigation system uses digital 2D architechtural maps that are already available for many buildings, and uses low-cost senors, that are available in most smartphones, to navigate users with visual impairments. Directions are provided using synthetic speech and users confirm their presence by verbal confirmation or by pressing a button on the phone. This system decreases the need to rely on guide dogs, which is deemed to be a significant achievement.