New virtual reality-tested system shows promise in aiding navigation of people with blindness or low vision

Research from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering is published in JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologyadvancing the work of John-Ross Rizzo, Maurizio Porfiri, and colleagues to develop the first wearable system to help pBLV independently navigate their surroundings.

“Traditional walking aids have key limitations that we want to overcome,” said doctoral student Fabiana Sofia Ricci, the paper’s lead author. candidate in the NYU Tandon Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and the NYU Tandon Center for Urban Science + Progress (CUSP). “White canes can only detect objects by contact and miss obstacles outside their range, while guide dogs require extensive training and are expensive. As a result, only 2 to 8 percent of visually impaired Americans use them. these two auxiliary devices.

In this study, the research team miniaturized the early tactile feedback of their backpack-based system into a discreet belt equipped with 10 precision vibration motors. The belt’s electronics, including custom circuit boards and microcontrollers, fit into a simple belt bag, a key step toward making the technology practical in the real world.

The system provides two types of sensory feedback: vibrations through the belt that indicate the location and proximity of obstacles, and beeps through the headphones that become more frequent as the user approaches an obstacle in their path. .

Associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at New York University Tandon, associate professor in the Department of BME at New York University Tandon, affiliated faculty of NYU WIRELESS, CUSP, and associate professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

“The goal is to be able to match any type of clothing so people don’t have any distractions from technology.”

The researchers tested the technology by recruiting 72 sighted participants, who wore a Meta Quest 2 VR headset and haptic feedback straps and walked around the NYU Media Commons at 370 Jay Street in downtown Brooklyn. It’s an empty room with only side curtains.

Through headsets, participants experienced a virtual subway station as seen by someone with advanced glaucoma—with reduced peripheral vision, blurred detail, and altered color perception. The environment was created using Unity gaming software to match the precise dimensions of the room, allowing the team to determine how participants would use the belt’s vibrations and audio feedback to navigate while visually impaired.

“We collaborated with mobility experts and NYU Langone ophthalmologists to design a VR simulation to accurately recreate the symptoms of late-stage glaucoma,” said the paper’s senior author, CUSP Director, Department of BME and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NYU Tandon. said Porfiri, a professor at the institute. “In this environment, we considered common transportation challenges that visually impaired people face every day – broken elevators, construction areas, pedestrian traffic and unexpected obstacles.”

The results showed that tactile feedback significantly reduced collisions with obstacles, while audio prompts helped users move more smoothly through the space. Future research will involve individuals with actual vision loss.

The technology complements Commute Booster, a mobile app developed by a team led by Rizzo to provide pBLV navigation guidance within subway stations. Commute Boosters “read” station signs and tell users where to go, while haptic strips can help these users avoid obstacles along the way.

In December 2023, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Rizzo, Porfiri and a team of NYU colleagues a $5 million grant through its Convergence Accelerator program, whose mission includes supporting the development of assistive and rehabilitative technologies. development. This grant, along with other NSF grants, funded this research and supports the development of Commute Booster. In addition to Ricci, the paper’s authors are Rizzo and Porfieri, Lorenzo Liguori and Eduardo Palermo, all from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Sapienza in Rome, Italy.