Obstacle detection by the Kinect cane system for the visually impaired

摘要

This paper proposes the Kinect cane system that can detect obstacles in indoor environments and inform a visually impaired user about them. A user study where two blindfolded subjects actually use the system to reach a destination in an experimental environment is carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system. The experimental results indicate that the system is promising as a means of detecting obstacles.