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Exploring Smart Environments Through Human Computation for Enhancing Blind Navigation

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Advances in Social Computing and Multiagent Systems (MFSC 2015)

Abstract

In this paper the orchestration of wearable sensors with human computation is explored to provide map metadata for blind navigation. Technological navigation aids for blind must provide accurate information about the environment and select the best path to reach a chosen destination. Urban barriers represent dangers for the blind users. The dynamism of smart cities promotes a constant change of these dangers and therefore a potentially “dangerous territory” for these users. Previous work demonstrated that redundant solutions in smart environments complemented by human computation could provide a reliable and trustful data source for a new generation of blind navigation systems. We propose and discuss a modular architecture, which interacts with environmental sensors to gather information and process the acquired data with advanced algorithms empowered by human computation. The gathered metadata should enable the creation of “happy maps” that are delivered to blind users through a previously developed navigation system.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Accessible Way - http://accessibleway.org/.

  2. 2.

    http://www.datamation.com/commentary/listen-up-hearable-computing-is-the-next-big-thing-1.html.

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Correspondence to Hugo Paredes .

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Paredes, H. et al. (2015). Exploring Smart Environments Through Human Computation for Enhancing Blind Navigation. In: Koch, F., Guttmann, C., Busquets, D. (eds) Advances in Social Computing and Multiagent Systems. MFSC 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 541. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24804-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24804-2_5

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