Wearable interfaces for orientation and wayfinding

People with severe visual impairment need a means of remaining oriented to their environment as they move through it. Three wearable orientation interfaces were developed and evaluated toward this purpose: a stereophonic sonic guide (sonic “carrot”), speech output, and shoulder-tapping system. Street crossing was used as a critical test setting in which to evaluate these interfaces. The shoulder-tapping system was found most universally usable. Considering the great variety of co-morbidities within this population, the authors concluded that a combined tapping/speech interface would provide usability and flexibility to the greatest number of people under the widest range of environmental conditions