Taking Control: A Novel Galvanic Stimulation Device for the Visually Impaired.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v12i4.5543Keywords:
Mobility Aid, Visually Impaired, Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation, Assistive Technology, Autonomous control, Artificial IntelligenceAbstract
The white cane has been the prominent and widely used mobility aid by visually impaired persons for many years, however, there are some limitations associated with the white cane mobility aid device. Primarily, the white cane exhibits restricted capability in detecting ground-level obstacles in proximity and does not provide reliable detection of aerial obstacles. Our work proposes a device for the safe navigation of visually impaired persons utilizing a non-invasive galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) technique. By delivering a signal (1-1.2mA) delivered behind the ear via electrode pads to the vestibular system, we induce a sensation of steering thereby facilitating navigation. Our proposed device utilizes a combination of Intel’s D435 depth camera and an object detection model, YOLOv5, to identify and process the detection of obstacles within a 3-meter range. Within 0.2 seconds, the object is detected, and the algorithm assesses the situation and sends instructions via User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets wirelessly to the GVS device. The device receives the packets and steers the subject (human) autonomously. In total, four tests with different scenarios have been conducted, through experimentation, it was found that the system could successfully detect, process, and transmit geospatial information to the GVS module; and steers the user into the correct trajectory to avoid any hazards obstructing the user’s path.
Downloads
References or Bibliography
Blindness in Canada. CNIB. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://cnib.ca/en/sight-loss-info/blindness/blindness-canada?region=bc#:~:text=Today%2C%20an%20estimated%201.5%20Million,that%20could%20cause%20sight%20loss.
Ultracane - a safer way to travel.... UltraCane .... putting the world at your fingertips. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.ultracane.com/
Mobility accidents - users.soe.ucsc.edu. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~manduchi/papers/MobilityAccidents.pdf
Dlugaiczyk, J., German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, Gensberger, K. D., II, D. B., Straka, H., C, A., DE, A., ST, A., RA, B., J, B., S, B., M, B., S, B., EA, B., JH, B., J, B., TC, B., SF, B., E, B., … Mikhail, Y. (2019, June 10). Galvanic vestibular stimulation: From basic concepts to clinical applications. Journal of Neurophysiology. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00035.2019
ESP8266. ESP8266 Wi-Fi MCU I Espressif Systems. (n.d.). https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp8266
Ohm’s law - how voltage, current, and resistance relate: Ohm’s law: Electronics textbook. All About Circuits.(n.d.). https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/direct-current/chpt-2/voltage-current-resistance-relate/
Python. Intel® RealSense™ Developer Documentation. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://dev.intelrealsense.com/docs/python2
Read, J. C. A. (2014, December 5). Stereo vision and strabismus. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/eye2014279
Model of Parallel Stereo Camera | Download Scientific Diagram. (n.d.). https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Model-of-parallel-stereo-camera_fig5_3832506
Epipolar geometry. OpenCV. (n.d.). https://docs.opencv.org/3.4/da/de9/tutorial_py_epipolar_geometry.html
Xu, S., Guo, Z., Liu, Y., Fan, J., & Liu, X. (2022, September 11). An improved lightweight YOLOV5 model based on attention mechanism for face mask detection. arXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16506
Lin, T.-Y., Maire, M., Belongie, S., Bourdev, L., Girshick, R., Hays, J., Perona, P., Ramanan, D., Zitnick, C. L., & Dollár, P. (2015, February 21). Microsoft Coco: Common Objects in Context. arXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/1405.0312
Text-to-speech x-platform¶. pyttsx3. (n.d.). https://pyttsx3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Socket - low-level networking interface. Python documentation. (n.d.). https://docs.python.org/3/library/socket.html
Numpy user guide#. NumPy user guide - NumPy v1.25 Manual. (n.d.). https://numpy.org/doc/stable/user/index.html#user
Dougherty, B. E., Kehler, K. B., Jamara, R., Patterson, N., Valenti, D., & Vera-Diaz, F. A. (2011, November). Abandonment of low-vision devices in an outpatient population. Optometry and vision science: official publication of the American Academy of Optometry. Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3204005/
Aoyama, K., Iizuka, H., Ando, H., & Maeda, T. (2015, May 11). Four-pole galvanic vestibular stimulation causes body sway about three axes. Nature News. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://www.nature.com/articles/srep10168
Dlugaiczyk, J., German Center for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, Gensberger, K. D., II, D. B., Straka, H., C, A., DE, A., ST, A., RA, B., J, B., S, B., M, B., S, B., EA, B., JH, B., J, B., TC, B., SF, B., E, B., … Mikhail, Y. (2019, June 10). Galvanic vestibular stimulation: From basic concepts to clinical applications. Journal of Neurophysiology. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00035.2019
Python. Intel® RealSense™ Developer Documentation. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://dev.intelrealsense.com/docs/python2
RC; W. D. L. F. (n.d.). What does galvanic vestibular stimulation stimulate? Advances in experimental medicine and biology. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12171101/
Utz KS;Korluss K;Schmidt L;Rosenthal A;Oppenländer K;Keller I;Kerkhoff G; (n.d.). Minor adverse effects of galvanic vestibular stimulation in persons with stroke and healthy individuals. Brain injury. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21879800/#:~:text=Results%3A%20The%20most%20frequent%20symptoms,10.7%25)%20underneath%20the%20electrodes.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2023 Jing Quan Peng, Elizabeth Strehl, Peter Mbua; Susan Leong, Mert Kaval
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright holder(s) granted JSR a perpetual, non-exclusive license to distriute & display this article.
