View Proposal

Proposer
Zi Hau Chin
Title
A Mobile Navigation Assistant for Visually Impaired Users in Indoor Environments
Goal
Develop an accessible mobile assistant that helps visually impaired users navigate a small, controlled indoor environment.
Description
This project involves developing a mobile navigation assistant that helps visually impaired users navigate a small, controlled indoor environment, such as one floor of a university building. The system will use an indoor positioning method such as Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, QR markers, NFC tags, Wi-Fi signals, visual landmarks, or a combination of these methods to estimate the user’s location. It will then calculate an accessible route to a selected destination using a suitable path-planning algorithm. The mobile application should allow users to select destinations through an accessible interface and receive clear voice and haptic instructions. It should announce relevant landmarks, indicate approaching turns, detect possible route deviations, and recalculate the route where appropriate. The system should also communicate when its location estimate is uncertain. For example, it may ask the user to stop and confirm a nearby landmark rather than continuing to provide potentially incorrect directions. The initial scope should be limited to fixed routes and a controlled area without stairs, road crossings, or other major hazards. The project will evaluate both technical performance and accessibility. Technical evaluation should consider localisation error, route-completion rate, instruction latency, wrong-turn detection, route-recalculation time, battery consumption, and reliability under different signal conditions. Where suitable ethical approval and participant access are available, representative users or accessibility specialists may evaluate the clarity, timing, workload, usability, and usefulness of the guidance. The completed system must be presented as a research prototype that complements established mobility aids and must not be described as a replacement for a white cane, guide dog, trained human support, or official accessibility infrastructure. It must not be presented as a safety-certified replacement for a cane, guide dog, accessibility infrastructure, or trained human support. Scope: one floor, five to ten destinations, fixed accessible routes, controlled testing, no stairs or uncontrolled hazards, voice and haptic guidance. -Which localisation method provides sufficient accuracy for indoor guidance? -Do voice and haptic instructions reduce navigation errors? -How does localisation uncertainty affect route success? -Can users recover safely after a wrong turn?
Resources
VIP_NAVI, Navi Mobile app, UWB and BLE Indoor navigation.
Background
mobile application development, graph algorithms and route planning, indoor positioning (BLE, QR codes, sensors...), accessible interface and interaction design, assistive technology
Url
Difficulty Level
Challenging
Ethical Approval
Full
Number Of Students
1
Supervisor
Zi Hau Chin
Keywords
indoor navigation, visual impairment, assistive technology, accessible route planning, ble beacon, haptic feedback, wayfinding, human-computer interaction
Degrees
Bachelor of Science in Computing Science
Back to List