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Chen et al. Intell Robot 2023;3:420-35 Intelligence & Robotics
DOI: 10.20517/ir.2023.24

Research Article Open Access

A wearable assistive system for the visually

impaired using object detection, distance
measurement and tactile presentation

1
1
Yiwen Chen , Junjie Shen , Hideyuki Sawada 2
1
Department of Pure and Applied Physics, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo
169-8555, Japan.
2
Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan.
Correspondence to: Prof. Hideyuki Sawada, Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda
University, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan. E-mail: sawada@ waseda.jp

How to cite this article: Chen Y, Shen J, Sawada H. A wearable assistive system for the visually impaired using object detection,
distance measurement and tactile presentation. Intell Robot 2023;3:420-35. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/ir.2023.24

Received: 27 May 2023 First Decision: 10 Aug 2023 Revised: 12 Aug 2023 Accepted: 31 Aug 2023 Published: 19 Sep 2023

Academic Editors: Jinhua She, Simon X. Yang Copy Editor: Dan Zhang Production Editor: Dan Zhang

Abstract
With the current development of society, ensuring traffic and walking safety for the visually impaired is becoming
increasingly important. We propose a wearable system based on a system previously developed by us that uses
object recognition, a distance measurement function, and the corresponding vibration pattern presentation to
support the mobility of the visually impaired. The system recognizes obstacles in front of a user in real time,
measures their distances, processes the information, and then presents safety actions through vibration patterns
from a tactile glove woven with shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators. The deep learning model is compressed to
achieve real-time recognition using a microcomputer while maintaining recognition accuracy. Measurements of the
distances to multiple objects are realized using a stereo camera, and vibration patterns are presented through a
tactile glove in response to these distances. Experiments are conducted to verify the system performance to
provide safe navigation depending on the positions and the distances of multiple obstacles in front of the user.
Keywords: SMA, tactile display, wearable device, visually impaired, object detection, distance measurement, deep
learning, model compression

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

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