Methods, systems, and apparatuses are described that are configured for determining a path of an apparatus, engaging a motor to cause the apparatus to proceed along the path, receiving one or more of LIDAR data, ultrasonic data, or optical flow data, determining, based on one or more of the LIDAR data, the ultrasonic data, or the optical flow data, one or more objects in the path of the apparatus, and engaging the motor to cause the apparatus to avoid the one or more objects.

A thermal display module configured to create a thermal pattern discerned by a visually impaired user to determine his or her surroundings. The thermal display module includes a plurality of thermoelectric modules, each of which are configured to cool or heat a pixel plate in close proximity to a user's skin. The cooling or heating of each of the thermoelectric modules create the thermal pattern discernable by the user.

Systems and methods relating to displaying images are disclosed. In one embodiment, sensor data is received via one or more sensors of a wearable head device comprising a display, the sensor data indicative of a surrounding environment of a user of the wearable head device. An image can be determined based on the sensor data, the image corresponding to the surrounding environment. A visibility of a first portion of the image corresponding to a first portion of the surrounding environment can be enhanced. Enhancing a visibility of a second portion of the image corresponding to a second portion of the surrounding environment can be forgone. The enhanced first portion of the image and a view of the second portion of the surrounding environment can be presented concurrently via the display of the wearable head device.

Multipurpose tactile warning panels for use in pedestrian walkways, and in particular tactile warning panels that are designed and built with multifunction/multipurpose capabilities that serve the visually impaired and enable the deployment of smart city technology by integrating tactile warning systems and subsurface enclosures that can withstand pressures of five (5) tons up to and exceeding sixty (60) tons and incorporate small cells, beacons, sensors, Fog Computing, electric energy generation, rechargeable power supplies, wireless M2M communication and a plethora of other smart city technologies.

There is provided an information processing apparatus including a processing unit to set, on a basis of acquired input information, a feedback target range in which an object existing on inside serves as a target to be fed back to a user, in which the processing unit outputs information regarding the set feedback target range to an output unit.

A computer implemented method for guiding traffic participants, especially pedestrians, especially visually impaired and blind people, especially for guiding in urban environments, between at least two places wherein the method contains the following steps: A. Providing a multi-modal three-dimensional map; B. Calculating a route based on the multi-modal three-dimensional map connecting the at least two places over at least one intermediate waypoint; C. Determining precise location of the traffic participant, preferably by using the multi-modal three-dimensional map; and D. Setting beacons along the path at the waypoints.

A virtual reality system is described herein. The virtual reality system includes a cane controller and a computing system. The cane controller comprises a rod, a sensor, and a brake mechanism, wherein the sensor is configured to generate a signal that is indicative of position, direction of movement, and velocity of the rod, and wherein the brake mechanism is configured to apply a force to the rod. The computing system receives the signal, computes a position, direction of movement, and velocity of a virtual rod in a virtual space, and outputs a control signal to the brake mechanism based upon such computation. The brake mechanism applies the force to the rod in a direction and with a magnitude indicated in the control signal, thereby preventing the user from causing the virtual rod to penetrate a virtual barrier in the virtual space.

To provide a technique for presenting a guided person with a direction in consideration of a relative orientation of a force sense presentation device with respect to an orientation of a camera. A direction presentation apparatus includes an instructed direction calculating unit which calculates, using a first angle in an external coordinate system representing an orientation of a camera that takes an image in front of a guided person and a second angle in the external coordinate system representing an orientation of a force sense presentation device that presents the guided person with a predetermined direction, an instructed force sense vector (hereinafter, referred to as a second instructed force sense vector) in a force sense presentation device coordinate system representing a direction to be instructed to the force sense presentation device from an instructed force sense vector (hereinafter, referred to as a first instructed force sense vector) in a camera coordinate system representing the direction to be instructed to the force sense presentation device.

Apparatuses, systems and methods associated with a travel assistance system. A wearable personal navigation device may include a communication system, an indicator, and a processor coupled to the communication system and the indicator. The processor may be configured to generate a request for a navigation path from a location to a destination and transmit the request to a node of the network. The processor may be configured to determine the direction of travel from the location of the user based on a first navigation path received from the node of the network in response to the request, wherein the first navigation path includes at least one modification from a second navigation path, wherein the modification is based on data received by the network from a remote device that indicates an object, and cause the indicator to indicate the direction of travel. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

When it is determined that a presence of a traffic light is not recognized in an image acquired by a first image acquisition operation by a camera, the presence of the traffic light is recognized in an image acquired by a second image acquisition operation in which a recognition accuracy of the presence of the traffic light is improved. In this second image acquisition operation, it is assumed that a pedestrian is stopped in front of a pedestrian crossing, and there is little demand for increasing a detection speed of objects such as moving objects present in a surrounding area. Thus, it is possible to sufficiently obtain the recognition accuracy of the traffic light by the second image acquisition operation that gives priority to the recognition accuracy of the presence of the traffic light.