• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.167-173
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• 2014

A white cane is used by many people who are blind or visually impaired. The studies and developments in the field of smart electronic white cane have been progressed to improve walking safety of the visually handicapped person. In this paper, we describe a situation-awareness white cane which support and guide walking of the visually handicapped person by giving information of surrounding situation through connection of a white cane and a mobile device. There are easily accessible buttons in the situation-awareness white cane. These buttons is connected with the mobile device by blue-tooth, so by pushing these buttons, the visually handicapped person can receive sound-guidance. As a result, the visually handicapped person can walk more safely by getting more information of situation.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.291-297
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• 2009

This paper introduces an electronic travel aid, named SmartWand, which detects obstacles using a ultrasonic sensor. In addition to obstacle detection, the SmartWand senses color information of objects and the environmental brightness. It is designed to be attached to a ordinary white cane in order to detect the obstacles at head-hight which cannot be covered by the cane. We have improved the first version of the SmartWand based on a user evaluation. The second version is much lighter and smaller than the previous one. It has been enhanced by two new functions. The SmartWand eliminates impact errors due to tapping the ground using a moving average filtering algorithm and restricts the detection range to the path in the moving direction using an acceleration sensor. We have tested these functions in various environments to determine the parameters for these functions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2022.07a
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• pp.651-652
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• 2022

시각장애인들의 가장 큰 불편함인 보행을 도와주는 수단은 흰 지팡이와 안내견이 전부이다. 이를 개선하고자 본 논문에서는 센서 프로그래밍(초음파 센서로 장애물 인지 후 모터로 진동 전달), led(시각장애인 인지), RFID(교통카드)를 아두이노, IoT 기술을 사용하여 시각장애인 수(약 25만 명)의 비해 턱없이 부족한 안내견들(80여 마리)에 준하는 스마트 지팡이를 구현하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Broadcast Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.383-386
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• 2009

대부분의 시각 장애인은 보행을 위해 흰 지팡이 및 안내견의 도움을 받는다. 일반적으로 사용되는 흰 지팡이는 주변 정보의 수집에 한계가 있으며 안내견은 고도의 훈련비용에 따른 비용의 문제점이 있어 그 수가 매우 제한적이다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 시각 장애인의 보행을 위한 시스템을 제한하고자 한다. 제안하는 시스템은 다음과 같다. 먼저 카메라를 이용하여 보행에 필요한 점자유도블럭을 검출한 후 검출된 점자유도블럭의 상태를 HRTF를 이용한 입체음향으로 소리를 전달하여 시각장애인이 안전한 보행을 할 수 있도록 하였다.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.186-200
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• 2023

This study aims to improve the usability of the white cane, which is walking equipment that most local visually impaired people use and carry when going out, and to contribute to the prevention of safety accidents and the walking rights of visually impaired people by providing improvement and resolution measures for the problems identified. Also, this study is a study on the visually impaired, primarily targeting the 1st to 2nd degree visually impaired people, who cannot go out on their own without walking equipment such as a white cane, corresponding to 20% among approximately 250,000 blind and low vision people in the Korean population. In the study process, the concept has been developed from the user's point of view in order that the white cane becomes a real help in the walking step of the visually impaired and the improvement of usability of the white cane, the main walking equipment for the visually impaired, are done by problem identification through the Double Diamond Model of Design Thinking (Empathize → Define → Ideate → Prototype → Test (verify)). As a result of the investigation in the process of Empathy, a total of five issues was synthesized, including an increase in the proportion of the visually impaired people, an insufficient workforce situation to help all the visually impaired, an improvement and advancement of assistive devices essential for the visually impaired, problems of damage, illegal occupation, demolition, maintenance about braille blocks, making braille block paradigms for the visually impaired and for everyone. In Ideate and Prototype steps, situations derived from brainstorming were grouped and the relationship were made through the KJ method, and specific situations and major causes were organized to establish the direction of the concept. The derived solutions and major functions are defined in four categories, and representative situations requiring solutions and major functions are organized into two user scenarios. Ideas were visualized by arranging the virtual Persona and Customer Journey Map according to the situation and producing a prototype through 3D modeling. Finally, in the evaluation, the final concept derived is a device such a smart cane for guidance for the visually impaired as ① a smart cane emphasizing portability + ② compatibility with other electronic devices + ③ a product with safety and convenience.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.923-925
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• 2015

오픈 소스를 지향하는 마이크로 컨트롤러를 내장한 기기 제어용 기판인 아두이노를 사용하여 만든 사물인터넷이 다양해졌다. 스마트 케인은 시각장애인의 흰 지팡이에 초음파 센서, 조도 센서를 이용하여 장애물을 감지하고 진동모터로 알림을 주는 등 시각장애인의 보행에 도움을 주는 스마트 지팡이다.

• Proceedings of the Korea Inteligent Information System Society Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.545-549
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• 2007

시각 장애인의 보행 보조 장치는 보통 "흰 지팡이"라고 부르며, 이는 이동권 보장을 위한 최소한의 보조 장치이다. 본 논문에서는 시각 장애인에게 주변의 장애물 인식과 현재위치를 알려주어 보행에 도움을 줄 수 있는 장치의 설계 및 제작에 과하여 기술한다. 전체 시스템은 크게 두 부분으로 구성된다. 하는 주변의 장애물 인식을 위한 PSD 센서와 GPS 수신기, Bluetooth 모듈이 내장되어 있는 지팡이 부분이고, 다른 하나는 지팡이 부분에서 획득된 정보의 처리 및 장애인에게 여러 가지 정보 제공을 목적으로 하는 휴대장치이다. 이러한 장치를 통해 시각 장애인의 이동권 확보와 사회 활동권 등 복지 증진에 도움을 주고자 한다.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.147-156
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• 2017

The white cane, walking assistive device of visually impaired person, has disadvantages for acquiring the information by contacting obstacles directly and detecting low obstacle on the ground. Recently, new devices have been developing to solve these problems, but these were not widely used due to high price and appearance. Therefore, in this study, we developed two types of walking assistive shoes which were manufactured with infrared sensors, pressure sensors and vibrating motors. Two types of shoes were classified with single sensor (SS) and double sensor (DS) type according to the number of infrared sensor. To evaluate the effectiveness, we compared required time and number of collisions during walking with walking assistive shoes and white cane on obstacle area. As the results, required time was increased than white cane while number of collisions was decreased when walking with developed walking assistive shoes. In addition, required time and number of collisions was more reduced when using walking assistive device than white cane. Therefore, we suggests that developed walking assistive shoes can a great help to provide safe walking condition and reducing time to adapt new types of walking assistive shoes.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.19B no.4
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• pp.225-230
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• 2012

In this paper, a blind person using a white cane as an adjunct of the things available sensing technology has been implemented. Sensing technology to implement things ultrasonic sensors and a webcam was used to process the data from the server computer. Ultrasonic sensors detect objects within 4meter people distinguish between those things that if the results based on the results will sound off. In this study, ultrasonic sensors, object recognition and human perception with the introduction of techniques and technologies developed for detecting objects in the lives of the visually impaired is expected to be greater usability.

• 한국HCI학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.02a
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• pp.251-255
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• 2008

We have developed an electronic aids, called SmartWand, which can help visually impaired people walk safely and tell them an object's color and environmental brightness SmartWand can inform visually impaired people of the dangerous obstacles around which they can't notice by the white cane such as a large panel with supporting poles on the street. Especially we have lmproved the previous version of SmartWand by reflecting the result of user study.