Accessible Wayfinding for the Visually Impaired through Sustainable Smartphone Based Sensing

Cities have been developed to support cars rather than people. This has led to a decrease in people's ability to move, live and interact with their urban surroundings., thus affecting the quality-of-life. Obviously., this applies to all of us, especially to people suffering from impairments. Surprisingly, the lack of information is one of the main obstacles to the construction of services that could bridge the gap between people living in urban areas and their environment. Take Google Maps as an example; one can request a route between any two destinations and will surely be provided with the shortest path, whether traveling by car, public transportation, or on foot. However, there are no pathways or information available to help visually impaired people. In response to the above issue, in this paper, we discuss how the widespread presence of sensor-equipped smartphones can be harnessed to create innovative services capable of improving factors such as interaction with the environment, social inclusion, and quality of life.