SEES: Concept and design of a smart environment explorer stick

Visually Impaired Person or People (VIP) need to improve both orientation and mobility capabilities in order to be able to walk autonomously and safely using a white stick (cane). However, the feedback provided by an enhanced white stick (smart stick) does not integrate assistance to orientation and walking functions. This paper proposes to fill this gap and outlines the SEES (Smart Environment Explorer Stick) an enhanced white cane which assists the VIP's navigation. The active multi-sensor context-awareness concept is adopted to be implemented in the SEES to help the VIP to move safely and easily in any places (indoor or outdoor). The first prototype of SEES (hardware and software) is presented in this paper.