5. Conclusion

4.2. Elevator button light

124 Causes and Coping with Visual Impairment and Blindness

The notification system can be also used to confirm the arrival floor of an elevator cage. The light of a floor button on a control panel in an elevator cage often turns off when the cage arrives at the corresponding floor. By using the system, a visually impaired user can know

First, a visually impaired user sets a smartphone camera toward the button of a desired floor as shown in Figure 20 and executes the light notification program. When the cage arrives at the floor, the light of the button will be turned off, and the system tells the user that the light is

(a) (b)

Figure 21. Recognition result of the state of an elevator button light. (a) ON; (b) OFF.

whether the cage arrives at a desired floor as described below.

Figure 20. A visually impaired user tries to confirm the current floor.

turned off. By hearing the message, the user can know the current floor.

In Figure 21, a user can correctly determine that he arrived at the ninth floor.

In this chapter, we proposed three assistive systems for visually impaired individuals based on image processing. The Kinect cane system can detect obstacles of various sizes and also recognize objects such as floors, walls, seats, upward staircases, downward staircases, and elevators. The detection and recognition results are notified to a visually impaired user by means of vibration feedback. The Kinect goggle system is another type of wearable system and can make user's hands free. The system can also detect obstacles and recognize objects. The smartphone-based light checking system can inform a visually impaired user about the ON/ OFF states of room lights and elevator button lights. The user can confirm light states and arrival floors. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed systems are effective in helping visually impaired individuals in everyday environments.
