Designing a personal guidance system to aid navigation without sight: progress on the GIS component

Abstract This paper reports on progress towards the development of a personal guidance system for a blind navigator. The system is being developed in light of the unique problems facing the blind traveller, which are discussed first. The system consists of four modules: a locator unit, a detailed spatial database, an algorithm for path selection and a user interface. Suggestions are offered for alternative ways of handling the locator problem using a global positioning system or a database query system. The nature of the geographic information system (GIS) to be used as a host for the database is discussed, followed by brief statement of the criteria for choosing an algorithm for path selection and suggestions on types of user interfaces best suited to the system. A report on a pilot-study GIS is presented. Special problems of database and system design are highlighted.