Multi-faceted sensory substitution using wearable technology for curb alerting: a pilot investigation with persons with blindness and low vision.

This was a pilot study with ten participants, so the findings are preliminary. Participants received a 5-minute tutorial, which may not reflect how people would use the system over time. Nine participants had formal white cane training, and the cane condition may have been a strong benchmark. The experiments were conducted on even, paved pathways in a park, so they do not show how the system performs in varied real-world streets. The paper describes participants using a white cane either with or without assistance from the system, while the listed conditions are cane alone, beeps with sonification, and beeps with speech output, so the exact role of the cane in each condition is not fully clear. The system assumed a fixed camera height and angle and flat ground, so real movement, collisions, slopes, or uneven surfaces could change alerts. The paper notes that lighting, weather, traffic, street furniture, and camera angle changes can reduce reliability. Qualitative feedback was limited by the small sample.

NYU, John-Ross Rizzo, and Todd E. Hudson have financial interests in related intellectual property. NYU owns a patent licensed to Tactile Navigation Tools, and NYU, Rizzo, and Hudson are equity holders and advisors of that company.

Do not conclude that the wearable system is better than the white cane for all curb tasks. It improved stopping distance in this small pilot, but orientation relative to the curb did not differ from cane alone, and the system was tested in a controlled park setting.