Development of Orientation and Mobility Training System for Visually Impaired Children Using VR.

Abstract

Visually impaired children do Orientation and Mobility(O&M) training to acquire the abilities to walk alone with white cane. The abilities to walk alone are to discriminate sound sources, localize sound sources, recognizer sound motion or echoes, and form a mental map. A mental map is a map formed in the brain, and visually impaired people create a map mainly from sound information. Walking without sight is dangerous, so many assistants are needed during O&M training. However, due to the shortage of O&M specialists, the time which visually impaired children do O&M training is becoming shorter. Therefore, we developed an O&M training system on a map created in a Virtual Reality (VR) space to eliminate the danger and alarm which visually impaired children feel during O&M training, and to enable safe and secure O&M training with fewer assistants.