A dual-mode cane includes a tip. The tip includes a low-friction surface that contacts a walking surface when the tip rests on the walking surface at an angle less than or equal to a transition angle. The tip includes a high-friction surface that contacts the walking surface when the tip rests on the walking surface at an angle greater than or equal to the transition angle.

Wireless sensor network motes and radar & sensor-based systems receive sensed data, compare it to a predetermined standard and generate a signal to deploy a corresponding response.

An information processing device calculates an occupancy rate of a pedestrian crossing in an image obtained by capturing an image of a traveling direction of a target person, determines a crossing status of the target person for the pedestrian crossing based on the calculated occupancy rate, and generates support information for supporting the target person crossing the pedestrian crossing based on the crossing status.

A human-interface device and a guiding apparatus for a visually impaired user including such human-interface device. The human-interface device includes a tactile module arranged to provide a set of haptic signals to a user, wherein the tactile module has a plurality of tactile units each arranged to provide at least a first haptic signal and operable to cooperate with one or more of other tactile units to provide different haptic signals.

An illuminated white cane is disclosed herein. The white cane has two translucent tubular sections which may contain a flexible illumination circuit. Each tubular section may have a red portion and a white portion, through which the illuminator circuit is able to transmit light. An elastic cord may pass through the two sections in parallel to the illuminator circuit, being anchored to a handle and handle core at one end, and a cane-tip bushing with a threaded retainer at the other end. The two tubular sections join with two bushings that are retained together by the tension of the elastic cord.

In 2019, the World Health Organization stated that globally, approximately 2.2 billion people live with some form of vision impairment. Visual impairment limits the ability to perform everyday tasks and adversely affects the ability to interact with the surrounding world, thus discouraging individuals navigating unpredictable and unknown environments. The present invention is a method and a system to define and develop a smart navigation intelligent cane (i-Cane) that enables a visually impaired person to navigate his or her environment. The method and the system detects objects along the path of the visually impaired person, measures the distance of the objects from the person, identifies the objects, uses speech to alert the person of the approaching objects, the type of objects obstructing the path, and the distance between the objects and the person.

An image area including a traffic light in an image taken by a camera is determined, and the determined image area including the traffic light is extracted and the extracted image area is subjected to enlargement processing to determine whether a status of the traffic light is red or green, and notice to start crossing is provided to a user under a condition that the status of the traffic light switches from red to green. Consequently, even with image information from a single camera alone, accuracy in recognition of the traffic light can sufficiently be enhanced. As a result, crossing start notice can properly be provided without an increase in configuration complexity and weight of the system.

A movement support system for a physically disabled person comprises: movement support tool; a plurality of passage units; and control apparatus. The movement support tool comprises: magnetically attractive part; non-contact tag part; reception part; input part; output part; and control part. The passage unit comprises: electromagnet part, non-contact reading part, transmission part, and control part. The control apparatus acquires the destination information and the user ID from the movement support tool; acquires the user ID and the position information from the first passage unit closest to the movement support tool; and calculates route from the position information to the destination information; generates guidance based on the route and position information; outputs the generated guidance from the movement support tool; and controls each of the electromagnet part of the plurality of passage units so as to attract (pull) the magnetically attractive part in traveling direction of the route.

An alert level of an operation for issuing an alert to a driver of a bicycle is set high in a case where a determination is made that the driver of the bicycle that approaches a pedestrian is unaware of a presence of the pedestrian, as compared with a case where a determination is made that the driver is aware of the presence of the pedestrian. For example, the alert level is increased by increasing an amount of light of a laser beam in a case where a circle having a predetermined radius is drawn by the laser beam on a road surface from a white cane owned by the pedestrian who is a person who is visually impaired.

A movement support device is provided, which early recognize a possibility of contact of a user with a moving body and perform an appropriate movement support operation according to the recognition. It is determined whether there is a possibility of contact of a vehicle with a white cane while maintaining a distance from the vehicle based on a relative position relationship with the vehicle, which is recognized by images from a camera, and a change thereof. When it is determined that there is a possibility of contact, the movement support operation is performed. Thus, the possibility of contact of the vehicle with the user can be early recognized, and when there is a possibility of contact, the movement support operation according to the actual situation can be immediately started, which results in an appropriate acquisition of a start timing of the movement support operation.