ioCane: A Smart-Phone and Sensor-Augmented Mobility Aid for the Blind

We present the design, implementation, and early results of ioCane, a mobility aid for blind cane users that uses detachable cane-mounted ultrasonic sensors connected to a circuit board to send contextual data wirelessly to an Android phone application. The system uses the built-in mobile phone modalities of vibrations and chimes to alert the user to object height and proximity. We believe this plug-and-play solution for visually impaired users has the potential to enhance user mobility and object avoidance with a minimal learning curve. A pilot study testing the performance of the ioCane with blind cane users showed a 47.3% improvement in obstacle avoidance. To our knowledge, the ioCane is the first sensor-based mobility assistance system to integrate natively with a mobile phone without any modifications to the phone or the system, as well as the first system of its kind to be evaluated by actual visually-impaired cane users. ACM Classification