title: A mobile phone system to find crosswalks for visually impaired pedestrians.
abstract: Urban intersections are the most dangerous parts of a blind or visually impaired pedestrian's travel. A prerequisite for safely crossing an intersection is entering the crosswalk in the right direction and avoiding the danger of straying outside the crosswalk. This paper presents a proof of concept system that seeks to provide such alignment information. The system consists of a standard mobile phone with built-in camera that uses computer vision algorithms to detect any crosswalk visible in the camera's field of view; audio feedback from the phone then helps the user align him/herself to it. Our prototype implementation on a Nokia mobile phone runs in about one second per image, and is intended for eventual use in a mobile phone system that will aid blind and visually impaired pedestrians in navigating traffic intersections.
authors.affiliation: The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Huiying
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Kee-Yip
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Coughlan
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brabyn
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