Assistive systems for visually impaired persons: challenges and opportunities for navigation assistance

The inability to see makes moving around very difficult for visually impaired persons. Due to their limited movement, they also struggle to protect themselves against moving and non-moving objects. Given the substantial rise in the population of those with vision impairments in recent years, there has been an increasing amount of research devoted to the development of assistive technologies. This review paper highlights the state-of-the-art assistive technology, tools, and systems for improving the daily lives of visually impaired people. Multi-modal mobility assistance solutions are also evaluated for both indoor and outdoor environments. Lastly, an analysis of several approaches is also provided, along with recommendations for the future.