Integrating BIM-based Path Planning with Audio Augmented Reality Navigation Assistant for Blind and Visually Impaired People

Abstract: Statistics of blindness and visual impairments reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) stress the urgent need for navigation assistants supporting Blind and Visually Impaired People (BVIPs). Despite progress in systems aimed at enhancing BVIPs’ independence, a navigation assistant integrating path planning functionalities for applicability in unprepared environments is still missing. Hence, this study proposes an Audio Augmented Reality (AAR) navigation assistant that integrates a path planning engine. It leverages spatial information provided by Building Information Models (BIM) for the computation of the reference path. The proposed solution has been tested on a real university campus case study showing very promising results.