Making Shopping Easy for People with Visual Impairment Using Mobile Assistive Technologies

An exploration of smartphone use by, and support for people with vision impairment: a scoping review

PURPOSE

Smartphones have become a core piece of assistive technology (AT) for people with vision impairment (PVI) around the world. This scoping review sought to provide a comprehensive picture of the current evidence base of smartphones for PVI.

METHODS

Seven electronic databases (CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, PubMed and Web of Science) were searched for papers published from 2007 to 2021. Peer-reviewed articles published in English which discussed smartphones use by PVI; smartphone technologies designed for PVI or training and learning support on the use of smartphones were included.

RESULTS

There were 16,899 records retrieved and 65 articles were included in this review. The majority (48%) of the papers focussed on developing better interfaces and Apps for PVI. Contrastingly, there was a paucity of papers (5%) discussing training or learning support for PVI to use smartphones and Apps effectively, even though it was highlighted to be important. Proper training will ensure that PVI can use this everyday technology as an AT to increase participation, enhance independence and improve quality of life overall.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings highlighted that smartphones and Apps can be used as effective and affordable AT by PVI. The many recent developments and research interest in smartphone technologies can further support its use. However, good training and learning support on the use of smartphones and Apps by PVI, is lacking. Future research should focus on the development, provision and evaluation of evidence based tailored training and support, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Implications for rehabilitationThere is a need for more training and learning support for people with vision impairment (PVI) on the use of smartphones and Apps.Individualized and a graded approach to training has been recommended for PVI to learn to use smartphones.When supporting or training people to use smartphones, the person's level of vision impairment as well as their age, are important considerations.Health professionals should be cognizant of the steep learning curve that some PVI may experience when using smartphones and Apps, especially when they switch from a phone with physical buttons to touchscreen.Certain smartphones features are useful to particular vision loss conditions. For example, zoom and magnification are helpful for those with low vision but text input and output, and commands using speech (e.g., Siri and TalkBack) are useful for those who are blind.

The Role of Service Recovery in Post-purchase Consumer Behavior During COVID-19: A Malaysian Perspective

The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence of service failure in rendering service process during COVID-19. It further explores the outcomes of service recovery offered to customers in case of service failure. Like other businesses, webstores have also faced the challenges in their efforts to satisfy their customers during COVID-19. Service failure has increased due to unexpected circumstances produced by this pandemic. It has become necessary for the webstores to retain their dissatisfied customers by reconsidering their service strategies. Relevant data for the purpose of this study were collected through questionnaires from 383 respondents by using online channels. The online channels were exclusively employed for maintaining the safety of respondents during COVID-19. Respondents for this study were online shoppers who encountered service failure during COVID-19. The results indicated that the incidence of service failure has increased due to an increase in online shopping during COVID-19. Some customers tend to repurchase from the same webstore. On the other hand, some customers do not want to purchase again from the same seller and decided to switch to the alternative webstore. Based on the findings, new strategy for online shopping service providers was introduced. This strategy will be helpful for the online service providers to increase their profitability by retaining their dissatisfied customers. Service providers can minimize the number of customers switching to other webstores by reducing the events of service failure. Customer's assistive intent can also be helpful for service providers to increase the efficiency of service recovery. Conducting a proper follow-up after providing service recovery can also reduce the switching of customer. It will be helpful for service providers to understand the customers' expectations before recovery process and their feeling after getting service recovery.

Waymarking in Social Robots: Environment Signaling Using Human-Robot Interaction

Travellers use the term waymarking to define the action of posting signs, or waymarks, along a route. These marks are intended to be points of reference during navigation for the environment. In this research, we will define waymarking as the skill of a robot to signal the environment or generate information to facilitate localization and navigation, both for its own use and for other robots as well. We present an automated environment signaling system using human–robot interaction and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The goal is for the robot, through human–robot interaction, to obtain information from the environment and use this information to carry out the signaling or waymarking process. HRI will play a key role in the signaling process since this type of communication makes it possible to exchange more specific and enriching information. The robot uses common phrases such as “Where am I?” and “Where can I go?”, just as we humans do when we ask other people for information about the environment. It is also possible to guide the robot and “show” it the environment to carry out the task of writing the signs. The robot will use the information received to create, update, or improve the navigation data in the RFID signals. In this paper, the signaling process will be described, how the robot acquires the information for signals, writing and updating process and finally, the implementation and integration in a real social robot in a real indoor environment.

Emerging technologies and their potential for generating new assistive technologies

Limited access to assistive technology (AT) is a well-recognized global challenge. Emerging technologies have potential to develop new assistive products and bridge some of the gaps in access to AT. However, limited analyses exist on the potential of these technologies in the AT field. This paper describes a study that aimed to provide an overview of emerging technological developments and their potential for the AT field. It involved conducting a gray literature review and patent analysis to create an overview of the emerging enabling technologies that may foster the development of new AT products and services and identify emerging AT applications. The analysis identified seven enabling technologies that are relevant to the AT field. These are artificial intelligence, emerging human-computer interfaces, sensor technology, robotics, advances in connectivity and computing, additive manufacturing and new materials. Whilst there are over 3.7 million patents related to these enabling technologies, only a fraction of them - 11,000 patents were identified in the analysis specifically related to AT (0.3%). The paper presents some of the promising examples. Overall, the results indicate that there is an enormous potential for new AT solutions that capitalize on emerging technological advances.

An Overview of Machine Learning and 5G for People with Disabilities

Currently, over a billion people, including children (or about 15% of the world’s population), are estimated to be living with disability, and this figure is going to increase to beyond two billion by 2050. People with disabilities generally experience poorer levels of health, fewer achievements in education, fewer economic opportunities, and higher rates of poverty. Artificial intelligence and 5G can make major contributions towards the assistance of people with disabilities, so they can achieve a good quality of life. In this paper, an overview of machine learning and 5G for people with disabilities is provided. For this purpose, the proposed 5G network slicing architecture for disabled people is introduced. Different application scenarios and their main benefits are considered to illustrate the interaction of machine learning and 5G. Critical challenges have been identified and addressed.

A Novel Marker Detection System for People with Visual Impairment Using the Improved Tiny-YOLOv3 Model

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Daily activities such as shopping and navigating indoors are challenging problems for people with visual impairment. Researchers tried to find different solutions to help people with visual impairment navigate indoors and outdoors.

METHODS

We applied deep learning to help visually impaired people navigate indoors using markers. We propose a system to help them detect markers and navigate indoors using an improved Tiny-YOLOv3 model. A dataset was created by collecting marker images from recorded videos and augmenting them using image processing techniques such as rotation transformation, brightness, and blur processing. After training and validating this model, the performance was tested on a testing dataset and on real videos.

RESULTS

The contributions of this paper are: (1) We developed a navigation system to help people with visual impairment navigate indoors using markers; (2) We implemented and tested a deep learning model to detect Aruco markers in different challenging situations using Tiny-YOLOv3; (3) We implemented and compared several modified versions of the original model to improve detection accuracy. The modified Tiny-YOLOv3 model achieved an accuracy of 99.31% in challenging conditions and the original model achieved an accuracy of 96.11 %.

CONCLUSION

The training and testing results show that the improved Tiny-YOLOv3 models are superior to the original model.

Experiences of individuals with blindness or visual impairment during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Hungary

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the measures of social distancing and national lockdown had a significant impact on everyday life. Individuals with BVI (blindness and visual impairment) are assumed to face increased barriers in numerous domains of their lives. This online survey research investigates, among Hungarian adults with BVI ( N = 132), the impact of the lockdown on their access to shopping, daily support needs, access to remote studies of higher education or work, and leisure habits. Respondents accounted for negative impacts of the lockdown on their participation and independence in all research topics. Issues of accessibility were common both concerning shopping for essential goods and access to remote study and work.

Smartphones-Based Assistive Technology: Accessibility Features and Apps for People with Visual Impairment, and its Usage, Challenges, and Usability Testing

Smartphones are less likely to be considered as assistive technology for visual impairment among a large majority of health care providers, excluding vision rehabilitation professionals, and the general public who are not familiar with accessible features and apps. The present review aims to highlight accessible features and apps along with usages, including educational, and access to smartphones as assistive technology for visual impairment and blindness. It also includes advantages and challenges faced by users, and usability testing by app developers. There have been significant recent developments in mobile technology that incorporate computer technology relating to electronic information, communication, and touch-screen accessibility. Such advances in technology are transforming the use of smartphones from a traditional visual interface to a truly visual free interaction using alternative body senses, such as haptic, gesture, and so on. There are many built-in accessible features and third-party accessible applications that enable people with visual impairment to perform daily activities, independent functioning, movement, social inclusion and participation, education, etc. They are universally designed, so they are unlikely to induce social stigma or negative reactions from peers or public. Healthcare practitioners, not limiting to eye care, and caregivers, family members, teachers, or special educators should be informed about the potential uses and benefits of smartphones for visually impaired in developing nations. Evidence shows that most of the users train by themselves. Enhancing the awareness along with training for teachers and caregivers would be helpful to improve access and skills among users with visual disabilities. Developers are continuously producing more innovative applications for visual impairment, which indicates the need for having a training guideline on the use of smartphones.

Rewritable and Sustainable 2D Barcode for Traceability Application in Smart IoT Based Fault-Tolerant Mechanism

With the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, two-dimensional (2D) barcodes are widely used in smart IoT applications as a perception portal. In industries with many circulations and testing links like traceability, since the existing 2D barcode cannot be changed once it is printed, it can only be replaced with more expensive radio frequency identification (RFID) labels or new 2D barcodes, causing a waste of human resources and costs. For better circulation efficiency and resource utilization, we propose a new design of the rewritable and sustainable 2D barcode based on the fault-tolerance mechanism. The ability to add new information in the 2D barcode can be achieved through data encryption and the insertion of a rewritable layer. It means the message of 2D barcodes could be changed, and increases the flexibility and liquidity of the 2D barcode application. Besides, the encoding and decoding method of the proposed 2D barcode is presented. Experimental results have illustrated the superiority of rewritable and sustainable 2D barcodes in the traceability of herbal medicine compared with the conventional 2D barcodes, and demonstrated the feasibility of the design. The findings show the potential for significant application in the field of traceability in smart IoT, as well as in the manufacturing industry and logistics.

Identification of Markers in Challenging Conditions for People with Visual Impairment Using Convolutional Neural Network

People with visual impairment face a lot of difficulties in their daily activities. Several researches have been conducted to find smart solutions using mobile devices to help people with visual impairment perform tasks. This paper focuses on using assistive technology to help people with visual impairment in indoor navigation using markers. The essential steps of a typical navigation system are identifying the current location, finding the shortest path to the destination, and navigating safely to the destination using navigation feedback. In this research, the authors proposed a system to help people with visual impairment in indoor navigation using markers. In this system, the authors have re-defined the identification step to a classification problem and used convolutional neural networks to identify markers. The main contributions of this paper are: (1) A system to help people with visual impairment in indoor navigation using markers. (2) Comparing QR codes with Aruco markers to prove that Aruco markers work better. (3) Convolutional neural network has been implemented and simplified to detect the candidate markers in challenging conditions and improve response time. (4) Comparing the proposed model with another model to prove that it gives better accuracy for training and testing.