Daigo Katayam^a1, Kazuo Ishiⁱ¹, Shinsuke Yasukawa¹, Yuya Nishida¹, Satoshi Nakadomari², Koichi Wada², Akane Befu², Chikako Yamada^2
1Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsu-ku, Kitakyushu-shi, Fukuoka, 808-0196, Japan
²NEXT VISION, Kobe Eye Center 2F, 2-1-8, Minatojima, Minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo, 650-0047, Japan
pp. 349–357
ABSTRACT
We have developed a fall risk alert sys-tem using a smartphone with a LiDAR sensor, Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro, as an electronic travel aid (ETA) for visually impaired to reduce fall risks from the edge of station platform and the stairs. The proposed system generates the height grid map generated from 3D point clouds and posture from the smartphone, and classify the walking area to four areas, walkable, positive obstacle, negative obstacle and occlu-sion areas. In this paper, we describe the algorithm and the experimental re-sults of the environmental recognition system for the fall risk alert. In the ex-periments, the accuracy, stability, and time delay are evaluat-ed in approach-ing a fall risk area, such as stairs. The results show the smartphone has the possibility to be the ETA to support the visually impaired and reduce the fall risks.

ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 25 November 2021
Accepted 26 January 2023

Keywords
Electronic travel aids
Negative obstacle detection
Point cloud LiDAR sensort

JRNAL9408

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