UC Santa Cruz

Navigating unfamiliar environments can be challenging for visually impaired individuals due to difficulties in recognizing distant landmarks or visual cues. This work focuses on a particular form of wayfinding, specifically backtracking a previously taken path, which can be useful for blind pedestrians. We propose a hands-free indoor navigation solution using a smartphone without relying on pre-existing maps or external infrastructure. Our hybrid matching method integrates machine learning to enhance positioning accuracy, addressing real-life challenges such as odometry errors or deviations from the correct path. Testing with datasets from visually impaired individuals demonstrates the potential of our approach in providing reliable backtracking assistance.