Vibrotactile sensory substitution on personal navigation: Remotely controlled vibrotactile feedback wearable system to aid visually impaired

Tactile sensory substitution is a field of science and engineering that studies the intersection of neuroscience, haptics, human sensory physiology, and the function of perception. Tactile feedback (e.g., vibrations and pressure) provides one solution to aid visually impaired. This paper presents the development and assessment of a simple pilot wearable system with vibrotactile feedback. We followed an iterative approach in which the proposed system went through user evaluations and technical refinements. The final prototype includes vibrotactile feedback for orientation with two unobtrusive actuators in contact with each arm of the user. Sixteen blindfolded sighted were invited to conduct travel experiments in a mutable labyrinth. Their evaluation was registered in video record. A post-experiment interview regarding the usefulness of the proposed system for the participants was performed. Our study indicates our pilot system is useful to provide unobtrusive indications of the level of proximity of an obstacle and the personal orientation in a controlled environment. The goal is to use the vibrotactile feedback on navigation of visually impaired people and inform the research community and society about the capabilities of these navigation systems. It is the first study involving vibrotactile feedback and we will consider the results for future works. We consider this work important because the projects involving vibrotactile in literature cover mainly the GPS technologies, in outdoor environments. We intend to prove that vibrotactile feedback is a good option in indoor and small environment, as house and office, in local application, using low cost enhancements in known objects at indoor environments. The study provided great empirical data and meaningful insight and information for the design of projects involving technologies of vibration for future application.