New smartphone apps empower blind users to navigate indoor spaces

News-Medical.Net October 8, 2024
University of California - Santa Cruz

Two new apps will enable blind people to navigate indoor buildings with spoken directions from a smartphone app, providing a safe method of wayfinding where GPS doesn’t work.

UC Santa Cruz professor of Computer Science and Engineering Roberto Manduchi has devoted much of his research career to creating accessible technology for the blind and visually impaired. Throughout years of working with these communities, he has learned that there is a particular need for tools to help with indoor navigation of new spaces.

Moving about independently in a place that you don’t know is particularly difficult, because you don’t have any visual reference -; it’s very easy to get lost. The idea here is to try to make this...

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