ABSTRACT
Human wayfinding, both by sighted and visually impaired people, consists of very different functions: sensing of the immediate environment, including obstacles and physically defined paths, for the purposes of moving through it and navigating to remote destinations beyond the immediately perceptible environment. Most evaluation of navigation systems for visually impaired people has been concerned with route guidance. Compared to sighted individuals, visually impaired people are at a disadvantage when it comes to wayfinding, both in sensing the near environment and in navigation. The navigation system computer constantly updated the distance and relative bearing of the next waypoint relative to the participant. Talking Lights, which are under development, rely on computer chips that are connected to the ballasts of fluorescent lamps and modulate the emitted light at frequencies too high to be visible. The modulating signal consists of digitally encoded utterances or other information.
