Survey on outdoor navigation system needs for blind people

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a survey conducted on a group of blind people living in urban area. Blindness is a problem faced all over the world. There has been many outdoor navigation system proposed by previous researchers. However, sometimes the design has not been made based on the blind people needs. There is a need to study the blind people needs in order to design a practical outdoor navigation system. The study was divided into four parts, (1) Occupation details, (2) Vision Medical History, (3) Outdoor Navigation History, (4) Features and Functions for outdoor navigation system. The result of the findings revealed that blind people requires a blind navigation system that is portable and able to help them cross the roads and avoid obstacles during their outdoor excursions while retaining the blind's identity that is the walking stick and black glasses.