{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,31]],"date-time":"2024-07-31T06:35:07Z","timestamp":1722407707392},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,4]],"date-time":"2021-08-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1628035200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"This paper reports on the progress of a wearable assistive technology (AT) device designed to enhance the independent, safe, and efficient mobility of blind and visually impaired pedestrians in outdoor environments. Such device exploits the smartphone\u2019s positioning and computing capabilities to locate and guide users along urban settings. The necessary navigation instructions to reach a destination are encoded as vibrating patterns which are conveyed to the user via a foot-placed tactile interface. To determine the performance of the proposed AT device, two user experiments were conducted. The first one requested a group of 20 voluntary normally sighted subjects to recognize the feedback provided by the tactile-foot interface. The results showed recognition rates over 93%. The second experiment involved two blind voluntary subjects which were assisted to find target destinations along public urban pathways. Results show that the subjects successfully accomplished the task and suggest that blind and visually impaired pedestrians might find the AT device and its concept approach useful, friendly, fast to master, and easy to use.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21165274","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,5]],"date-time":"2021-08-05T01:44:24Z","timestamp":1628127864000},"page":"5274","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Wearable Urban Mobility Assistive Device for Visually Impaired Pedestrians Using a Smartphone and a Tactile-Foot Interface"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Ricardo","family":"Tachiquin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ingenier\u00eda, Universidad Panamericana, Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1 de Balaguer 101, Aguascalientes 20290, Mexico"}]},{"ORCID":"http:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9966-9131","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ramiro","family":"Vel\u00e1zquez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ingenier\u00eda, Universidad Panamericana, Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1 de Balaguer 101, Aguascalientes 20290, Mexico"}]},{"ORCID":"http:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0272-3275","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carolina","family":"Del-Valle-Soto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ingenier\u00eda, Universidad Panamericana, \u00c1lvaro del Portillo 49, Zapopan 45010, Mexico"}]},{"ORCID":"http:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6234-7849","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carlos A.","family":"Guti\u00e9rrez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Aut\u00f3noma de San Luis Potos\u00ed, Av. Chapultepec 1570, Privadas del Pedregal, San Luis Potos\u00ed 78295, Mexico"}]},{"ORCID":"http:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5389-7590","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Miguel","family":"Carrasco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ingenier\u00eda y Ciencias, Universidad Adolfo Iba\u00f1ez, Av. Diagonal las Torres 2640, Santiago 7941169, Chile"}]},{"ORCID":"http:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0893-138X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roberto","family":"De Fazio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"http:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4798-1777","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andr\u00e9s","family":"Trujillo-Le\u00f3n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Electr\u00f3nica, Universidad de M\u00e1laga, Andaluc\u00eda Tech, Campus de Teatinos, 29071 M\u00e1laga, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"http:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4058-4042","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paolo","family":"Visconti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"http:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5459-8306","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fernando","family":"Vidal-Verd\u00fa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Electr\u00f3nica, Universidad de M\u00e1laga, Andaluc\u00eda Tech, Campus de Teatinos, 29071 M\u00e1laga, Spain"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"World Health Organization (2019). 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