2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Studies of Data-Carrier Technology Application for Assisting Environmental Information Ensuring for the Visually Impaired
| Project/Area Number |
18500700
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Educational technology
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| Research Institution | Tsukuba University of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
MIYAKAWA Masahiro Tsukuba University of Technology, Faculty of Health Science, Professor (70248748)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TATSUMI Hisayuki Tsukuba University of Technology, Faculty of Health Science, Associate Professor (30188271)
MURAI Yasuyuki Nihon Pharmaceutical University, 薬学部, Lecturer (30373054)
SEKITA Iwao Tsukuba University of Technology, Faculty of Health Science, Professor (40357322)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
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| Keywords | Assisting visual impairment / RFID / Cruising robot / Localization of RFID / Signal strength / Self Organizing Map (SOM) |
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| Research Abstract |
RFID tags are of several useful features for assisting visual impairment. The aim of this research is to show the feasibility of such a system that works to assist the visually impaired by providing with environmental information according to the following approach: 1) we attach information to the surroundings by data-carriers (landmarking), and 2) we detect the changes of the surroundings by checking them by cruising robots.
Firstly, we have considered several situations in getting environmental information for the visually impaired students in our campus, and then we have made experiments using RFIDs to solve them. Namely, we have attached RFID tags (both passive and active) to the surroundings, and experimented to read them either by the reader attached to cruising robots or by the receiver. As the result of the experiment, we have got a conclusion that it is possible to ensure environmental information by this approach.
Next, we have considered of how we can cope with the following situation by using RFIDs: a visually impaired person confronts a difficulty under unexpected change of surroundings. Here, the most important problem is the localization of a signaling tag in the room. This problem is known to be hard even for the active RFIDs. We have devised the following approach to solve this problem: 1) we analyze the direction of the signal by rotating the coupled twin antennas, 2) we deploy anchoring tags in the room, 3) we use clustering of RSS (received signal strength) values by means of the Self Organizing Map (SOM), and 4) moving the robot, we iterate the localization procedure 1)-3) until we reach the target.
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