JP2001344688A - Visually handicapped person helping system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a visually handicapped person helping system capable of making a visually handicapped person recognize his/her own present position, the distance to a destination or an obstacle and a direction to safely guide him/her to the destination. SOLUTION: For this visually handicapped person helping system for guiding the visually handicapped person to the destination, the positions of the destination and obstacles in a prescribed range including the destination are stored as map information, transmitters for transmitting signals containing the positional information of an arranged part are installed at a plurality of parts within the prescribed range, the visually handicapped person utilizing the system wears a receiver for receiving the signals transmitted from the transmitters and an azimuth sensor for detecting the direction in which the visually handicapped person utilizing the system advances is provided. The distance from the present position of the visually handicapped person to the destination or the obstacle and the direction are obtained an the basis of the output of the azimuth sensor, the positional information of the transmitter received by the receiver and the map information stored in a memory, and they are outputted. The output is made in voice and the distance is outputted as it is or by being converted to the number of footsteps.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a visually impaired person assistance system for guiding a visually impaired person to a destination.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a visually impaired person moves, there is a problem how to detect and avoid an obstacle existing up to a destination. There are few visually impaired persons who can use a guide dog or the like. Usually, the visually impaired person has a white cane and hits the white cane against the obstacle to detect a nearby obstacle and avoid the obstacle.

[0003]

The detection of obstacles by this white stick not only reliably detects obstacles, but also informs the surrounding people that they are visually impaired.
This is an extremely effective method. However, according to this method, since only obstacles within the reach of the white stick can be detected, the obstacle is suddenly recognized close to the user, and the user is constantly nervous to avoid the obstacle. For this reason, there has been a demand for the development of a system capable of recognizing obstacles at a certain distance in advance as an aid to the white cane. It is also desired to develop a system that not only recognizes obstacles in advance, but also enables a visually impaired person to recognize his / her own position and guide himself / herself to a destination.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a visually impaired person assistance system that allows a visually impaired person to recognize surrounding obstacles and guide the visually impaired person to a destination.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A visually impaired person assistance system according to the present invention is a visually impaired person assistance system for guiding a visually impaired person to a destination. A memory that stores, as map information, the position of the ground and obstacles existing within the predetermined range,
A transmitter arranged at a plurality of locations in the predetermined range and transmitting a signal including position information of at least the location, and a receiver mounted on a visually impaired person who uses the system and receiving a signal transmitted from the transmitter And a direction sensor for detecting a direction in which a visually impaired person using the system is traveling, based on the output of the direction sensor, the position information of the transmitter received by the receiver, and the map information stored in the memory. It is characterized by comprising a processing device for obtaining a distance from a current position of a disabled person to a destination or an obstacle and its direction, and an output device for outputting information obtained by the processing device.

As described above, in the visually impaired person assistance system of the present invention, transmitters are arranged at a plurality of locations within a predetermined range including a destination, and the transmitter transmits at least positional information on the locations where the transmitters are arranged. Therefore, the visually impaired person who has passed the location of the transmitter receives the signal transmitted from the transmitter and processes the position information included in the consultation signal, thereby obtaining the current position of the user in a predetermined range. Can be recognized. Further, since the position of the destination and the obstacle in the predetermined range are stored as map information, the distance from the current position of the visually impaired person recognized as described above to the destination or the obstacle is obtained from this map. It is possible to calculate the direction of the visually impaired person using the azimuth sensor, and by outputting them, the visually impaired person can determine his / her current position and the distance from the current position to the destination and obstacles. You can know the distance and direction.

The system of the present invention further includes a step sensor for measuring the number of steps progressed by a visually impaired person using the system, and based on information on the number of steps detected by the step sensor, the current position of the visually impaired person is determined. The distance to the obstacle or the destination is calculated and output as the number of steps.

As described above, by converting the distance into the number of steps and outputting the converted number, the visually impaired person can recognize the distance more easily. In addition, instead of this step number sensor, the stride length of the visually impaired person using the system in the processing device is set in advance, and based on this information, the distance from the current position of the visually impaired person to the obstacle or the destination is determined. May be converted into step count information.

The system of the present invention further comprises a distance sensor for detecting a distance from the visually impaired person to an obstacle,
The distance to the obstacle obtained from the map information or the number of steps calculated by the step sensor is corrected using the distance to the obstacle measured by the distance sensor.

As described above, in the system of the present invention, the distance from the current position of the visually impaired person to the obstacle can be calculated based on the map information stored in the memory. It may be provided separately. If the distance between the transmitters is long and the distance to the obstacle cannot be accurately measured with the map information, the distance measured by this distance sensor is used to correct the distance measured from the map information or the number of steps calculated by the number of steps. To do it. Further, when an obstacle not shown on the map suddenly appears, the nearby sensor can be used to recognize a nearby obstacle.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the receiver, or the receiver and a distance sensor are attached to a pair of glasses, and the memory, an azimuth sensor other than the distance sensor, and a step number sensor are provided. If the components are configured separately and the components are attached to the body of the user, the visually impaired can be easily carried.

As the transmitter and the receiver used in the present invention, the transmitting and / or receiving apparatus already disclosed by the present applicant in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-8734 can be suitably used. Preferably, the output is an audio output.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the visually impaired person assistance system of the present invention. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the visually impaired person assistance system of the present invention includes a distance sensor 1 for detecting a distance from a visually impaired person wearing the system to an obstacle, and a direction in which the visually impaired person wearing the system moves. A direction sensor 2 for detecting, a step sensor 3 for measuring the number of steps taken by a visually impaired person wearing the system, transmitters 4 provided at a plurality of locations within a predetermined range including a destination, and transmission from the transmitter. A receiver 5 for receiving an incoming signal, and a memory 6 for storing, as map information, a destination and a position of an obstacle existing within the predetermined range.
And information for recognizing the current position of the visually impaired person and guiding to a destination by comparing information from the distance sensor 1, the direction sensor 2, the step sensor 3 and the receiver 5 with map information stored in the memory 6. And an output device 8 for outputting the information obtained by the processing device 7. Note that the signal transmitted by the transmitter 4 includes position information indicating the location of the transmitter on the map.

As the distance sensor 1, a known sensor that obtains a distance by sending a signal to an obstacle and receiving a reflected signal can be used. Specifically, a sensor having an autofocus function, a laser beam, an infrared ray, A well-known thing using an ultrasonic wave etc. can be used. As the direction sensor 2, a known sensor such as a geomagnetic sensor used in a car navigation system or the like can be used. In addition, the pedometer (registered trademark) is
A known method for detecting the number of steps by detecting the movement of the center of gravity accompanying walking can be used.

The transmitter 4 and the receiver 5 are disclosed in
The transmitting and / or receiving device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 8734 can be suitably used. In this transmitting and / or receiving apparatus, a transmitter is mounted at a plurality of locations on a ceiling within a predetermined range, and position information of a location where the transmitter is installed is transmitted downward from the ceiling. JP-A-9-873
In the device described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 4 (1999) -1995, a light projector is used as a transmitter, and the light projector emits information, and a mounting unit for mounting the transmission unit to a ceiling lighting device (fluorescent lamp). It is composed of a solar cell unit for driving the transmission unit using the light of the ceiling fluorescent lamp as a power supply.

In the above example, the system of the present invention is used indoors. However, the system can be modified so that it can be used outdoors. In this case, since there is no ceiling, for example, a transmitter is attached to a telephone pole or the like. It is convenient to install a large number of transmitters in a town like an antenna of a PHS telephone so that the system can be operated over a wide area.

In this embodiment, a plurality of the transmitters are installed at a place where the visually impaired person wants to recognize the position, and a signal including an ID indicating each position is continuously transmitted from each device. When the visually impaired person equipped with the visually impaired person assistance system of the present invention passes through the place, the receiver 5 receives a signal including the ID of each transmitter 4 and knows the current position of the visually impaired person. Can be. It should be noted that a plurality of transmitters 4 and a receiver 5 worn by a visually impaired person are used as a transmitter and a receiver, respectively, so that a specific signal is transmitted from the visually impaired side and the ID signal is caught by responding to the signal. You may do it.

The memory 6 can be a RAM, a ROM, or the like, and is used by a visually impaired person to recognize a location, for example, an obstacle, a position of an object, etc. in a range including a road from home to a station. , And the installation position of the transmitter 4 are recorded as a map. It is preferable that the memory 6 be detachable so that the visually impaired person can change the memory 6 according to the destination to which the visually impaired is going.

Next, a specific example of the visually impaired person assistance system of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example in which the visually impaired person assistance system of the present invention is applied to glasses. FIG.
In the example shown in FIG. 1, first, the distance sensor 1 and the receiver 5
A transceiver (not shown) that wirelessly transmits and receives the information of the distance sensor 1 and the receiver 5 is housed in the housing 11,
The housing 11 is attached to the temple 13 of the glasses 12. The lens 21 of the distance sensor 1, the light receiving unit 5a of the receiver 5, and the antenna 22 of a transceiver (not shown) that wirelessly transmits and receives information of the distance sensor 1 and the receiver 5 are exposed outside the housing 11. I have.

On the other hand, an azimuth sensor 2, a step sensor 3, a memory 6, a processing device 7, an output means 8, and a transceiver (not shown) for wirelessly transmitting and receiving information of the processing device 7 are provided in a separate housing 31.
The case 31 is mounted on a belt 32 worn by the user. Outside the housing 31, a speaker 41 as an output means 6 and an antenna 42 of a transceiver are exposed.

Next, an example of a method of using the above-described assisting system for the visually impaired of the present invention will be described. First, as an initial setting operation of the system, a distance to an obstacle near a visually impaired person is detected using the distance sensor 1. Next, the number of steps when walking to the obstacle is measured by the step number sensor 3,
The relationship between the number of steps and the distance of the visually impaired person wearing the system, that is, the stride length is set. When operating the system,
As described above, a plurality of transmitters 4 are installed within a predetermined range, and a visually impaired person wearing the system receives light from the transmitter at the receiver 5 through the vicinity of the transmitter 4. Recognize the current position. From the current position and the map of the obstacle in the memory 6, the subsequent movement of the visually impaired person can be tracked using the direction sensor 2 and the step number sensor 3, and the visually impaired person can be guided to the destination. The guidance is performed by voice output, and may be, for example, "an obstacle is present in three steps to the right". In this example, the number of steps is output, but the distance may be output as it is, such as "an obstacle is present 3 m ahead". In addition, as in this example, it is possible to recognize the current position of the visually impaired person based on the position of the transmitter on the map and to avoid obstacles and guide to the destination. When the distance is large and the distance to the next obstacle cannot be accurately calculated only from the map information, the distance sensor 1 is used together to measure the distance from the current position of the visually impaired person to the obstacle. The distance to the obstacle obtained from the map information or the number of steps may be corrected by the output of the distance sensor 1.

In the above-described example, the number of steps of the user is calculated using the number-of-steps sensor. However, instead of this, an input setting means for the processing device 7 is provided to input the stride of the user. The number of steps may be calculated from this information.

As another example, for example, a speech recognition device capable of recognizing a voice of a visually impaired person may be provided in the above-mentioned assistance system for the visually impaired person, and the visually impaired person may be guided to a destination in accordance with an instruction of the speech of the visually impaired person. it can. In this example, the direction and distance to which the visually impaired should travel should be determined from the relationship between the current position and the "station" in the map in the storage means 7 in response to an instruction by the voice of the visually impaired, for example, "station". The determined direction and distance can be guided from the output means 6 by, for example, voice. At this time, if the distance to the destination is notified by the number of steps from the stride obtained in the initial setting or a previously set stride, the guidance becomes easier.

When it is necessary to make a turn to reach the destination from the current position, an instruction such as "turn right after going straight 10 steps and then go straight 10 steps" can be made. The output device is a sound output device such as a speaker, and it goes without saying that an earphone or the like can be used.

[0025]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to recognize the current position of a visually impaired person and the distance and direction from the current position to a destination or an obstacle. By outputting this, the visually impaired can be more safely and reliably guided to the destination.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an example of a visually impaired person assistance system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example in which the visually impaired person assistance system of the present invention is applied to glasses.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Distance sensor 2 Direction sensor 3 Step sensor 4 Transmitter 5 Receiver 6 Memory 7 Processing device 8 Output device 11, 31 Housing 12 Glasses 13 Tsuru 21 Lens 22, 42 Antenna 32 Belt 41 Speaker

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A visually impaired person assistance system for guiding a visually impaired person to a destination, wherein the position of the destination and an obstacle existing within the predetermined range in a predetermined range including the destination Memory as map information, a transmitter arranged at a plurality of locations in the predetermined range and transmitting a signal including at least the location information of the location, and from the transmitter mounted on a visually impaired person using the system A receiver for receiving the transmitted signal, comprising a direction sensor for detecting the direction in which a visually impaired person using the system proceeds, the output of the direction sensor, and the position information of the transmitter received by the receiver, A processing device that obtains a distance and a direction from a current position of the visually impaired to a destination or an obstacle based on the map information stored in the memory,
An output device for outputting information obtained by the processing device. 2. The system further comprises a step sensor for measuring the number of steps progressed by a visually impaired person who uses the system, and an obstacle from the current position of the visually impaired person based on the step number information detected by the step sensor. 2. The visually impaired person assistance system according to claim 1, wherein the distance to the destination is calculated and output as the number of steps. 3. The system further includes a distance sensor for detecting a distance from the visually impaired person to the obstacle, and an obstacle obtained from the map information using a distance to the obstacle measured by the distance sensor. The visually impaired person assistance system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the distance to an object or the calculated number of steps is corrected. 4. A step length of a visually impaired person using the system is set in advance, and the distance from the current position of the visually impaired person to an obstacle or the destination is converted into step number information based on the setting. The audiovisually disabled support system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: 5. The receiver, or the receiver and the distance sensor are attached to a glass temple, and the memory, a direction sensor that is a sensor other than the distance sensor, and a step number sensor are configured separately. 5. The visually impaired person assistance system according to claim 2, wherein the component is mounted on a user's body. 6. The visually impaired person assistance system according to claim 1, wherein the output device is a voice output device.