Adaptive automatic assistance center for blind users who lost orientation

This thesis focuses on the problem of navigation of visually impaired people, especially in urban areas. The main objective of this thesis is to provide help to visually impaired people in situations when they lose orientation and to reduce their dependence on passers-by. To this purpose, an extensive qualitative research was carried out. The research focuses on the general problem of navigation of visually impaired people in urban areas, as well as on situations when the visually impaired lose orientation and thus become dependent on other people's help. The outcome of this research was a series of hypotheses that were subsequently verified in a quantitative ethnographic field study. On the basis of the knowledge gathered in this study a concept of an automatic assistance center based on the principle of mutual cooperation among visually impaired people was proposed. The center would also offer to visually impaired people a new form of help in situations when they lose orientation.