Advanced Mobile and Wireless Technologies

Advanced Mobile and Wireless Technologies

Advancement of wireless technology and innovation have changed the way we live.  The normal GPS navigation systems are of not so great use for Indoor Navigation. Several indoor navigation solutions are already in place. However, each of them have their own limitations from usability perspective. There are an estimated 285 million people with visual disabilities and of which 39 million are blind (WHO, 2017). However, the initiation to find alternative that should go beyond medicine, which are like Apps for Blind and visually impaired. The research continues on using NFC tags for helping visually impaired and blind people navigate through in unfamiliar buildings without any assistance.

The solution for blind or visually impaired people retail shopping involves indoor navigation and selecting the product for purchasing. Indoor navigation is very complex and is not very easy as the typical GPS navigation for outdoor purposes. Indoor environments include various obstacles like building design, walls, or any objects in between. These will have impact on electromagnetic waves propagation capability. So far, a variety of navigation solutions were developed for enabling the indoor navigation. These are developed using sensors, Infrared (IR), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Assisted GPS (A-GPS), etc.,

This aimed to present a low-cost solution for visually challenged people. The solution is based on NFC technology intended to bring an innovative approach when compared to the existing Active RFID technologies. The solution provides a reliable, cost effective, robust, and easy to use solution for the visually impaired users. This solution is easily deployable for blind people or visually impaired people to move around in buildings, shops and malls. Further this will work on any NFC based smart phone irrespective of operating system. This solution can be further improvised to suit any retail industry based shopping places, grocery shops, movie complexes.