| Stevie, a visually impaired student walking to the professor's office, is required to perform various indoor navigational activities and may benefit using a non-electronic travel aid like cane, guide dog...etc., with a complementary electronic travel aid like Drishti, Navatar, FootPath...etc. Electronic aids use hardware sensors to hear, think, feel, see and speak, however, sometimes due to uncertainties they are not able to replace Stevie's ability to independently reason and make decisions, while ensuring his goals are achieved, namely navigation safety, convenience and fast travel-time. This is due to the electronic aids limited hardware processing power and its inability to provide a consistent solution at all times. Hence, this thesis propose the development of a collaborative smartphone application, "THEIA" that may collaborate with Stevie and those in the environment, using a scenario-driven, ontological and goal-oriented approach. In-house testing conducted revealed that collaborative approach may indeed provide added comfort during indoor navigation. |
