Pilot evaluation of a path-guided indoor navigation system for visually impaired in a public museum

One of the common problems faced by visually impaired people is of independent path-based mobility in an unfamiliar indoor environment. Existing systems do not provide active guidance or are bulky, expensive and hence are not socially apt. Consequently, no system has found wide scale deployment in a public place. Our system is an omnipresent cellphone based indoor wayfinding system for the visually impaired. It provides step-by-step directions to the destination from any location in the building using minimal additional infrastructure. The carefully calibrated audio, vibration instructions and the small wearable device helps the user to navigate efficiently and unobtrusively. In this paper, we present the results from pilot testing of the system with one visually impaired user in a national science museum.