Navigation in smart environments using mediated reality tools

  • Authors:

  • Jorge Torres-Solis;Mei Guan;Elaine Biddiss;Tom Chau

  • Affiliations:

  • Bloorview Research Inst., Bloorview Kids Rehab, Toronto and Inst. of Biomaterials and Biomedical Eng., Univ. of Toronto and Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical and Computer Eng., Univ. of Tor ...;Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada;Bloorview Research Institute, Bloorview Kids Rehab, Toronto, Canada and Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada;(Correspd. E-mail: tom.chau@utoronto.ca) Bloorview Research Institute, Bloorview Kids Rehab, Toronto, Canada and Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toront ...

  • Venue:
  • Technology and Health Care - Smart Environments: Technology to Support Healthcare
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Topographical Disorientation (TD) is the lack or loss of orientation and navigation abilities. People living with TD face functional challenges in everyday situations. Smart mediated reality environments present potential solutions for cognitive conditions like TD. In this article, we introduce a novel mediated reality location aware environment. It was hypothesized that tools which offer different positional information affect the navigation performance of a user. The objective of this study was to investigate preferred assistive tools for indoor navigation for use in a proposed mediated reality wayfinding system. These tools may eventually be used to assist patients with TD. To this purpose, we designed a novel wayfinding metric that can be used in the assessment of navigation tasks similar to a scavenger hunt. This novel metric is based on a relative energy expenditure ratio and is independent of navigation route complexity. We investigated four sets of tools (minimap, locator, coordinate display and routing compass) that can be used in a smart mediated reality environment to provide relevant wayfinding information. These tools were designed using different combinations of spatial knowledge (landmark, route or survey), graphical presentation (compass, text, icon, top/side view) and reference frames (egocentric or allocentric). Each tool was evaluated objectively and subjectively. The locator and minimap tools emerged as preferred interfaces, providing the most relevant wayfinding information while minimizing energy expenditure during navigation tasks.