*IoT-Based Route Guidance Technology for the Visually Impaired in Indoor Area DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105549*

handicapped, especially the visually impaired feel more difficult and inconvenient in indoor activities than other mobility handicapped due to their lack of behavioral information and lack of information for them.

Recently, various walking-supported technologies for the visually impaired using global positioning system (GPS) signal-based location information have been introduced, helping them in their outdoor activities. However, since GPS signals cannot be used in underground or indoor areas such as railway stations, various walking support systems that have been introduced recently cannot be used. According to a survey report by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport [1], as shown in **Table 1**, it is identified that the level of user satisfaction of the mobility handicapped including the visually impaired is 10–20% lower than that of the general public at railway station and bus terminal [1–4].

In order to increase the satisfaction ratio for the physical disabled, large-scale hardware investment such as the installation of elevators for interfloor movement and improvement in facilities such as application of barrier-free (BF) design is essential. However, on the other hand, the visually impaired need routes and risk information, not large-scale facility investors like the disabled. Various mobility convenience


#### **Table 2.**

*Technology development research and practical application examples.*

facilities to support the mobility of the visually impaired in indoor areas are continuously installed, but the level of the user satisfaction ratio is not improving as the facilities installation rate increases. Accordingly, although it is important to install hardware-based mobile convenience facilities, measures to improve the user satisfaction in view of software are required [3–5].

In order to solve these problems, various technologies for supporting independent walking for the visually impaired are being introduced and developed in many countries and institutes, as shown in **Table 2** [6–26]. It is confirmed that these various technologies are having difficulty in practical use in terms of usability, such as electronic sticks like NAVIWALK [14, 25], or still in the early stages of technology development. In particular, most of these are technologies for outdoor application, and except for some, it is analyzed that indoor technology is still in the early stages of development.

Recently, the use of smartphones has become common among visually impaired people in external activities in Korea. Accordingly, in this chapter, a technology for supporting mobility in indoor spaces of the visually impaired people based on smartphones that do not require large-scale facilities was presented, and its applicability was verified [7, 8, 13]. That is, Internet of things (IoT) sensor-based route guidance technology that can improve the satisfaction of the visually impaired in indoor space through smartphone-based technology and user satisfaction evaluation results was represented.
