Literature Reviews

Reviewed research papers, articles, and publications relevant to digital accessibility.

• BBeep: A Sonic Collision Avoidance System for Blind Travellers and Nearby Pedestrians

  Seita Kayukawa, Keita Higuchi, João Guerreiro, Shigeo Morishima, Yoichi Sato, Kris Kitani, Chieko Asakawa (2019) — Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19)

  This paper presents BBeep, an assistive suitcase-shaped system designed to help blind travellers navigate crowded public spaces such as international airports, train stations, and shopping malls. The authors argue that existing blind-navigation resea…

  • blind navigation
  • obstacle avoidance
  • collision avoidance
  • assistive technology
  • wearable technology
  • computer vision
  • pedestrian detection
  • sonification
  • auditory interface
  • orientation and mobility
  • indoor navigation
  • blindness and low vision

• Corridor-Walker: Mobile Indoor Walking Assistance for Blind People to Avoid Obstacles and Recognize Intersections

  Masaki Kuribayashi, Seita Kayukawa, Jayakorn Vongkulbhisal, Chieko Asakawa, Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Shigeo Morishima (2022) — Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact., Vol. 6, MHCI, Article 179)

  Walking an indoor corridor independently is deceptively hard for a blind traveller. Two problems compound: avoiding obstacles stacked against the wall (the same wall the traveller uses as a tactile guide) and recognising when an intersection has arri…

  • indoor navigation
  • blind navigation
  • obstacle avoidance
  • intersection detection
  • LiDAR
  • orientation and mobility
  • visual impairment
  • smartphone assistive technology
  • wayfinding
  • spatialized audio
  • vibration feedback

• Iterative Design of Sonification Techniques to Support People with Visual Impairments in Obstacle Avoidance

  Giorgio Presti, Dragan Ahmetovic, Mattia Ducci, Cristian Bernareggi, Luca A. Ludovico, Adriano Baratè, Federico Avanzini, Sergio Mascetti (2021) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper presents WatchOut, a sonification system that conveys real-time obstacle information to blind or visually impaired (BVI) people through non-verbal audio cues. While white canes detect obstacles only within about 1 meter and miss elevated h…

  • visual impairment
  • blindness
  • sonification
  • obstacle avoidance
  • orientation and mobility
  • computer vision
  • auditory display
  • navigation assistance

• CaBot: Designing and Evaluating an Autonomous Navigation Robot for Blind People

  João Guerreiro, Daisuke Sato, Saki Asakawa, Huixu Dong, Kris M. Kitani, Chieko Asakawa (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper presents CaBot (Carry-on roBot), an autonomous suitcase-shaped navigation robot designed to guide blind people to destinations in unfamiliar indoor environments while avoiding obstacles. Unlike smartphone navigation apps that provide turn-…

  • navigation robot
  • blind
  • orientation and mobility
  • haptic feedback
  • LiDAR
  • computer vision
  • human-robot interaction
  • obstacle avoidance
  • bone conduction
  • indoor navigation

• WatchOut: Obstacle Sonification for People with Visual Impairment or Blindness

  Giorgio Presti, Dragan Ahmetovic, Mattia Ducci, Cristian Bernareggi, Luca Ludovico, Adriano Baratè, Federico Avanzini, Sergio Mascetti (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper presents WatchOut, a sonification technique that conveys real-time information about obstacle characteristics to people who are blind or visually impaired (BVI) through non-verbal sound, enabling them to avoid obstacles while walking. The …

  • sonification
  • obstacle avoidance
  • blind
  • low vision
  • computer vision
  • orientation and mobility
  • ARKit
  • mobile accessibility
  • auditory display
  • navigation