Design and implementation of a secure mobile phone-based route navigator (mGuide), adapted for the visually challenged people

Abstract

AbstractThis paper is focused on the development of a turn-by-turn voice navigation mobile application “mGuide” adapted for visually challenged people (VCP). The application was developed in response to the challenges of outdoor navigation by VCP. The application optimizes five map servers to give not only the best real-time routing at any instance but also faster loading and retrieval of route data into the phone’s storage. The destination points of the user are obtained in real time using open street maps and stored in the database. Once the destination has been set and mode of travel chosen, the software gives turn-by-turn voice navigation till the destination is reached. In addition, the application can be able to read inbox messages as they are received. Furthermore, the application gives an audio alert to the user in case of lost route and redirects the user using alternative route. Testing of the application was done using 9 totally blind students and 1 partially blind student from Kenyatta University in Kenya, who were successfully guided. In testing the performance of the whole system, no sound alerts between 0 and 10 m from the middle of the road were heard. However, as the user deviated more than the 10 m from the path, sound alerts are heard. In conclusion, sound alert due to wrong turn is averagely 5.23 s.