Indoor Navigation System based on Passive RFID Transponder with Digital Compass for Visually Impaired People

Conventionally, visually impaired people using white cane or guide dog for traveling to desired destination. However, they could not identify their surround easily. Hence, this paper describes the development of navigation system which is applied to guide the visually impaired people at an indoor environment. To provide an efficient and user-friendly navigation tools, a navigation device is developed by using passive radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders which are mounted on the floor such as on tactile paving to build such as RFID networks. The developed navigation system is equipped with a digital compass to facilitate the visually impaired people to walk properly at right direction especially when turning process. The idea of positioning and localization with the digital compass and direction guiding through voice commands is implemented in this system. Some experiments also done which is focused on the calibration of the digital compass and relocates the visually impaired people back to the right route if they are out of the direction. Besides, a comparison between two subjects which are human and a mobile robot is made to check the validity of the developed navigation system. As the result, the traveling speed of human and mobile robot is obtained from the experiment. This project is beneficial to visually impaired people because the navigation device designed with voice commands will help them to have a better experience, safer and comfortable travel. Keywords—navigation system, passive RFID, digital compass, visually impaired people