An edge detection framework conjoining with IMU data for assisting indoor navigation of visually impaired persons

Smartphone applications based on object detection techniques have recently been proposed to assist visually impaired persons with navigating indoor environments. In the smartphone, digital cameras are installed to detect objects which are important for navigation. Prior to detect the interested obje...

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Main Authors: Chan, Kit Yan, Engelke, U., Abhayasinghe, Nimsiri
Format: Journal Article
Published: Pergamon 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/49873
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author Chan, Kit Yan
Engelke, U.
Abhayasinghe, Nimsiri
author_facet Chan, Kit Yan
Engelke, U.
Abhayasinghe, Nimsiri
author_sort Chan, Kit Yan
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Smartphone applications based on object detection techniques have recently been proposed to assist visually impaired persons with navigating indoor environments. In the smartphone, digital cameras are installed to detect objects which are important for navigation. Prior to detect the interested objects from images, edges on the objects have to be identified. Object edges are difficult to be detected accurately as the image is contaminated by strong image blur which is caused by camera movement. Although deblurring algorithms can be used to filter blur noise, they are computationally expensive and not suitable for real-time implementation. Also edge detection algorithms are mostly developed for stationary images without serious blur. In this paper, a modified sigmoid function (MSF) framework based on inertial measurement unit (IMU) is proposed to mitigate these problems. The IMU estimates blur levels to adapt the MSF which is computationally simple. When the camera is moving, the topological structure of the MSF is estimated continuously in order to improve effectiveness of edge detections. The performance of the MSF framework is evaluated by detecting object edges on video sequences associated with IMU data. The MSF framework is benchmarked against existing edge detection techniques and results show that it can obtain comparably lower errors. It is further shown that the computation time is significantly decreased compared to using techniques that deploy deblurring algorithms, thus making our proposed technique a strong candidate for reliable real-time navigation.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2017
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-498732018-09-18T04:40:14Z An edge detection framework conjoining with IMU data for assisting indoor navigation of visually impaired persons Chan, Kit Yan Engelke, U. Abhayasinghe, Nimsiri Smartphone applications based on object detection techniques have recently been proposed to assist visually impaired persons with navigating indoor environments. In the smartphone, digital cameras are installed to detect objects which are important for navigation. Prior to detect the interested objects from images, edges on the objects have to be identified. Object edges are difficult to be detected accurately as the image is contaminated by strong image blur which is caused by camera movement. Although deblurring algorithms can be used to filter blur noise, they are computationally expensive and not suitable for real-time implementation. Also edge detection algorithms are mostly developed for stationary images without serious blur. In this paper, a modified sigmoid function (MSF) framework based on inertial measurement unit (IMU) is proposed to mitigate these problems. The IMU estimates blur levels to adapt the MSF which is computationally simple. When the camera is moving, the topological structure of the MSF is estimated continuously in order to improve effectiveness of edge detections. The performance of the MSF framework is evaluated by detecting object edges on video sequences associated with IMU data. The MSF framework is benchmarked against existing edge detection techniques and results show that it can obtain comparably lower errors. It is further shown that the computation time is significantly decreased compared to using techniques that deploy deblurring algorithms, thus making our proposed technique a strong candidate for reliable real-time navigation. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/49873 10.1016/j.eswa.2016.09.007 Pergamon fulltext
spellingShingle Chan, Kit Yan
Engelke, U.
Abhayasinghe, Nimsiri
An edge detection framework conjoining with IMU data for assisting indoor navigation of visually impaired persons
title An edge detection framework conjoining with IMU data for assisting indoor navigation of visually impaired persons
title_full An edge detection framework conjoining with IMU data for assisting indoor navigation of visually impaired persons
title_fullStr An edge detection framework conjoining with IMU data for assisting indoor navigation of visually impaired persons
title_full_unstemmed An edge detection framework conjoining with IMU data for assisting indoor navigation of visually impaired persons
title_short An edge detection framework conjoining with IMU data for assisting indoor navigation of visually impaired persons
title_sort edge detection framework conjoining with imu data for assisting indoor navigation of visually impaired persons
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/49873