Obstacle Avoidance

The ability to detect and navigate around physical barriers in one's path, a critical mobility skill for blind and visually impaired people. Traditional obstacle avoidance relies on long cane techniques (sweeping the cane side to side to detect ground-level hazards) and guide dogs, but these methods have significant limitations — long canes cannot detect overhead obstacles like tree branches or awnings, and both approaches are less effective in unstructured environments like parks. Emerging assistive technologies for obstacle avoidance include smart canes with ultrasonic sensors, wearable devices using computer vision, and smart belts that provide haptic warnings, though most remain prototypes rather than commercially available products.