A Harvard app guides blind users with the phone camera and cuts collisions
The Mobilio app uses the phone camera to pick a safe path and gives step-by-step spoken guidance.
Researchers at Harvard built an app that uses the phone camera to guide people who cannot see well. In the test it reduced bumps indoors. They have not yet said when everyone can get it.
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Why it matters
Ordinary phone maps are not enough for people with low vision. This research suggests the camera can fill the gap, but it is not in app stores yet.
Watch: a lovely idea that uses your phone to help others.
The details
- Raymond Liu and Patrick Slade led the work at Harvard's engineering school; it appeared in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
- It runs on an ordinary phone with the camera, GPS, motion sensors and LiDAR when available, with no special device.
- A computer-vision model analyses live video to find a safe path, and audio cues adapt to the user's walking rhythm.
- In a study of 14 cane users, they reached destinations 13% faster with 41% fewer indoor collisions than with Google Maps.
- The team consulted more than 100 people with low or no vision; the source does not say whether the app can be downloaded.
Receipts
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