Reimagining Accessibility: Leveraging Deep Learning in Smartphone Applications to Assist Visually Impaired People Indoor Object Distance Estimation

Abstract

Every other aspect of life is organized around the sight. A person with vision impairment suffers severely from independent mobility and quality of life. The proposed framework combines mobile deep learning with distance estimation algorithms to detect and classify indoor objects with estimated distance in real-time during indoor navigation. The user, wearing the device with a lanyard or holding it in a way that positions the camera forward, identifies in real-time surroundings indoor objects with estimated distance and voice commentary. Moreover, the mobile framework provides an estimated distance to the obstacles and suggests a safe navigational path through voice-guided feedback. By harnessing the power of deep learning in a mobile setting, this framework aims to improve the independence of visually impaired individuals by facilitating them a higher degree of independence in indoor navigation.  This study's proposed mobile object detection and distance estimation framework achieved 99.75% accuracy.  This research contributes by leveraging mobile deep learning with identifying objects in real-time, classification and distance estimation, a state-of-the-art approach to use the latest technologies to enhance indoor mobility challenges faced by visually impaired people.