An Interactive Model Based on a Mobile Application and Augmented Reality as a Tool to Support Safe and Efficient Mobility of People with Visual Limitations in Sustainable Urban Environments

Edgar Herberto Medina-Sanchez, Miroslava Mikusova and Mauro Callejas-Cuervo
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Edgar Herberto Medina-Sanchez: Software Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Tunja 150003, Colombia
Miroslava Mikusova: Department of Road and Urban Transport, Faculty of Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Zilina, 010 26 Zilina, Slovakia
Mauro Callejas-Cuervo: Software Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Tunja 150003, Colombia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: An increasing availability and reliability of open-source geographical resources, options in design of mobile applications together with smartphones of a high quality, featuring top cameras and number of sensors, bring us an extraordinary opportunity to provide the visually impaired people with relevant and comprehensible information on their vicinity, and thus to improve their mobility in a sustainable environment. The paper presents an interactive tool based on a mobile application created for mobile devices with Android operation system, and on using the augmented reality. It is a tool to support safe and efficient mobility of blind people and people with severe visual limitations in a sustainable urban environment. The essential benefit from using this tool lies in preventing risky, possibly dangerous and hardly accessible places. The first part briefly presents the problem of the visually impaired including the forms of the visual impairment, personal and economic costs for the entire society and the importance of improving the mobility of this group of people. The second part of the paper introduces the current state of the problem being solved as well as some basic tools which were developed to bring the surrounding environment closer to the visually impaired. Further, the process of the mobile application development is described. The application is meant to indicate information on places where the visually impaired users of the application are present while walking in an external environment (including the distance to their destination); the pilot testing of the application by a selected groups of the visually impaired is introduced, too.

Keywords: visual limitation; augmented reality; mobile application; urban environment; safe and efficient mobility of people (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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