R.V.

College of Engineering
R.V .Vidyaniketan Post, Mysore Road, Bengaluru- 560059

Design of Haptic Based Footwear for Navigation Assistance

Under the Guidance of:

Ms.Rachana S.Akki
Assistant Professor
Dept. Of E&IE, RVCE

Sanhita Guha 1RV14EI040

Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering

 Contents

•Introduction •Accuracy in Individual Directions

•Literature Survey •Inference

•System Design •Conclusion

•Vibration Patterns •References

•Experiment

•Result
 Introduction

•Wearable system to provide directional information

•Haptics: Science of applying touch and control for interaction with computer applications

•3 major modules:
• Sensing module
• Inference Engine
• User Interface

•Haptic feedback on footwear

 Introduction

• Navigation instructions sent from phone to footwear

• Conveyed to user through vibrations.

• Direction is understood using:

1. Vibration Pattern
2. Vibration Intensity
3. Interval between vibrations
4. Duration of vibrations

TITLE OF PAPER
Smart Shoes Design with
Embedded Monitoring
Electronics System
for Healthcare and Fitness
Applications
International Conference on
Consumer Electronics
IEEE,2016
12/03/2023
Literature Survey
AUTHOR KEY FINDINGS ADVANTAGES
Po-Yu Hwang, The system architecture and adherence Simplicity of use
Chia-Ching Chou, method for a wearable health and fitness
Wai-Chi Fang, monitoring Reliability of Data
Ching-Ming Hwang system mounted shoe is presented. It
includes an
integrated modular monitoring circuit
that provides for fitness
and biomedical information including
coordinate tracker,, calorie counter, and
biomedical information
such as foot oxygen concentration.
Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering 5
 Literature Survey

TITLE OF PAPER AUTHOR KEY FINDINGS ADVANTAGES

Design and Evaluation Qianli Xu, A wearable system is designed to Effectiveness of vibration
of Vibrating Footwear Tian Gan, provide directional information to patterns for direction sensing
for Shue Ching Chia, visually impaired people. It consists of based on usability testing.
Navigation Assistance Liyuan Li, a mobile phone and haptic shoes. The
to Visually Impaired Phyoe Kyaw phone serves as the perceptual and
People Kyaw control unit that generates directional
instructions. The shoes combine these
2016 IEEE instructions with the user’s walking
International status to produce unique vibration
Conference on Internet patterns.
of Things (iThings)

12/03/2023
Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering 6
 Literature Survey

TITLE OF PAPER AUTHOR KEY FINDINGS ADVANTAGES

Design of a Bladder Yue Wang The Smart Shoe aims to render subtle Effective on multiple terrains.
Based Elastomeric Mark A. terrain features while still being able to Simple design using elastomers
Smart Shoe for accommodate gross features, like and embedded mechatronics
Haptic Terrain Display sloped terrain. The compactness and
portability of this haptic wearable
device allows it to not only display
2014 IEEE/RSJ terrain features on flat treadmill surface,
International Conference but also potentially be able to
on Intelligent Robots compensate terrain unevenness to
and Systems (IROS maintain level ankle posture for
2014) rehabilitation purposes.

12/03/2023
Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering 7
 System Design

Hardware

•Phone

•Bluetooth

•Micro-controller

•Force Sensors

•Vibration motors
 System Design

Software

•Android Platform on phone

•Allows manual input of directions

•Derives Directional information via GPS

•Includes obstacle detection

 Vibration Patterns

•Controlled by microcontroller

•Motors used in regions rich in FA1 mechanoreceptors

•Highly sensitive to vibrations

•Basic directions:

• Left,Right,Front,Back

• Stop
 4 Patterns Tested for Best Results

Pattern1

Left,Right,Front,Back

•3 vibrations in target direction

•1 vibration in opposite direction

•1 vibration in target direction

Stop
•2 consecutive vibrations on all 4 motors
 4 Patterns Tested for Best Results

Pattern2

•Removes vibration in opposite direction from pattern1.

•Reduces complexity

Pattern3

•4 motors used on both shoes instead of one

•2 vibrations in target direction.

 4 Patterns Tested for Best Results

Pattern 4

•Based on analogy to tactile paving

•2 modes:

1. Stand-by: vibrations of 0.2s with 1s interval

2. Walking: determined by force sensors

 Experiment

•60 blindfolded participants

•Different vibration patterns assigned to each

•Users were asked to state indicated direction

•Correctness was determined

•Finally, users walked with aid of haptic shoes

 Results

•4 out of 60 had accuracy<60%

•Overall Accuracy depends on

accuracy of signal detection
 Accuracy in individual directions

Left Right

Patterns1&2 are inferior to In standing condition, accuracy of

3&4 Pattern 2 is similar to 3&4
 Accuracy in individual directions

Forward Backward Stop

 Inference

•Challenging to recognize lateral directions with 1 foot system

•Lateral direction navigation improved by feedback from 2 feet

•Standing /walking has minimum effect on direction sensing

•Improvement required on virtual tactile paving concept(Pattern 4)

 Conclusion

•Development and evaluation of footwear for navigation assistance

•Easily configured by change in vibration conditions

•Virtual tactile paving achieved similar results as direct mapping

•Future Scope: Research on virtual tactile paving concept

 References

[1] “Design and Evaluation of Vibrating Footwear for Navigation Assistance to

Visually Impaired
People”, Qianli Xu,Tian Gan, Shue Ching Chia, Liyuan Li, Phyoe Kyaw Kyaw, IEEE International
Conference on Internet of Things (iThings) ,2016

[2] “Smart Shoes Design with Embedded Monitoring Electronics System for Healthcare and Fitness
Applications”, Po-Yu Hwang, Chia-Ching Chou, Wai-Chi Fang, Ching-Ming Hwang, International
Conference on Consumer Electronics IEEE,2016

[3] “Design of a Bladder Based Elastomeric Smart Shoe for Haptic Terrain Display”, Yue Wang,Mark A.,
2014 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2014) September 14-
18, 2014, Chicago, IL, USA