Long-Range Traversability Awareness and Low-Lying Obstacle Negotiation with RealSense for the Visually Impaired

The application of RGB-D sensors provides a revolutionary force in the research field of computer vision, where traversable area detection and obstacle avoidance are the fundamental topics to aid visually impaired people. However, the detection using RGB-D sensors is limited by the sparse depth map and the narrow field of view, which hampers longer traversability awareness and lower obstacle negotiation. This paper proposes an effective approach to combine a pair of wearable smart glasses and a waist-worn pathfinder to assist the visually impaired. Traversable lines are generated to feedback the visually impaired through real-time stereo sound after real-world coordinates adjustment with a RealSense R200 (RGB-D sensor) and an IMU integrated in the pair of smart glasses. Low-lying obstacles are detected by using another RGB-D sensor of RealSense, the RS410, as the waist-worn pathfinder to provide early warning. Indoor and outdoor detection results as well as a field test demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of our approach.