Learning to use electronic travel aids for visually impaired in virtual reality

The number of people experiencing vision loss and visual impairment is continuously increasing, concurrently to the aging of the population. Wearable electronic travel aids (ETAs) can be used to realize assistive, intelligent navigation systems that overcome some of the problems that this disability brings about. We propose a virtual reality (VR) environment that can simulate orientation and mobility training with an ETA developed by our team, toward enhancing mobility skills in visually impaired people. VR simulations can serve as surrogates for physical environments that might be too dangerous to visit in person during the initial sessions of the training.