Glossary

Search results

Bluetooth Low Energy Beacon(also: BLE Beacon, iBeacon, Bluetooth Beacon)

A small, low-power wireless transmitter that broadcasts Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals at regular intervals. In accessibility contexts, BLE beacons are widely used for indoor navigation systems for people with visual impairments, as GPS does not work reliably indoors. By…

CaBot(also: Carry-on Robot, Carnegie Mellon Suitcase Robot)

A research project begun in 2017 at Carnegie Mellon University that developed a suitcase-shaped autonomous navigation robot to guide blind and low-vision travellers through indoor public spaces. CaBot pioneered the "grip-the-handle-and-walk" interaction pattern, combining LiDAR,…

ChamBadge(also: Chambadge)

A wearable accessible cell phone device developed as part of the Talking Braille ubiquitous computing system for indoor wayfinding. The ChamBadge combines a cell phone with a bone-conduction headset, an infrared transceiver, and wireless networking capabilities, worn behind the…

Cyber Crumb(also: Digital Crumb, Electronic Breadcrumb)

A concept in accessible wayfinding where tiny, inexpensive solar-powered digital chips are placed along building walkways like a trail of breadcrumbs, storing location-specific information that can be wirelessly transmitted to assistive devices. Developed by David Ross and…

HULOP(also: Human-scale Localization Platform)

An open-source indoor navigation platform originally developed by IBM Research to support blind navigation using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon fingerprinting for localisation plus a topological map server for route planning and point-of-interest data. HULOP has been used as…

Indoor Localization(also: Indoor Positioning, Indoor Positioning System, IPS)

The problem of determining the precise location of a person or device inside a building, where GPS signals are weak or unavailable. Indoor localization is foundational for accessible wayfinding systems aimed at blind and low-vision travellers, who need to know their position…

Inertial Sensing(also: IMU sensing, Inertial measurement)

The use of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers — often built into smartphones and wearable devices — to measure motion, orientation, and direction of movement. In accessibility applications, inertial sensing enables dead reckoning for indoor navigation where GPS is…

Infrared(also: IR, Infrared Communication)

A wireless communication technology that uses infrared light to transmit data over short distances, commonly used in assistive technology for line-of-sight data exchange between devices. In accessibility applications, infrared transmission has been used in systems like Talking…

Infrared Beacon(also: IR Beacon, IR Tag)

A device that transmits identification signals using infrared light, used in indoor navigation and wayfinding systems to help locate users within buildings. When a user's receiver detects the beacon's signal, the system can determine the user's position relative to known…

Intersection Detection(also: Junction detection, Corridor intersection recognition)

A computer-vision or sensor-fusion technique used in indoor navigation systems for blind travellers to identify where two or more walkable corridors meet, so the navigation software can update the user's position on a map and issue a turn instruction at the right moment.…

Narrative Route Description(also: Verbal Route Guidance, Turn-by-Turn Narrative)

A structured verbal representation of a travel route that guides users through sequential steps using spoken or text-based instructions. Effective narrative descriptions for blind travelers typically follow a consistent format: action to take, distance information, then landmark…

Node Map(also: Topological node map, Graph map)

A graph-based representation of a walkable space in which each node corresponds to a meaningful point — typically an intersection, a destination (room, exit, stairwell), or the user's current position — and each edge corresponds to a traversable corridor or path. Node maps are…

Proximity Detection(also: Proximity Sensing, Proximity-Based Localization)

A method of determining a user's approximate location by measuring their closeness to known reference points, such as BLE beacons or Wi-Fi access points, based on signal strength. In accessible indoor navigation systems, proximity detection is used to localize users at specific…

RSSI(also: Received Signal Strength Indicator, Received Signal Strength Index)

A measurement of the power level of a radio signal received by a device, commonly used in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi based indoor positioning systems. In accessible indoor navigation, RSSI readings from BLE beacons are used to estimate a user's distance from each beacon — stronger…

RSSI Fingerprinting(also: Received Signal Strength Fingerprinting, Radio Fingerprinting, Signal Fingerprinting)

An indoor localization technique in which a device estimates its position by comparing the current pattern of received signal strengths (RSSI) from surrounding radio sources — most commonly Bluetooth Low Energy beacons or Wi-Fi access points — against a pre-collected map of…

Signal Fingerprinting(also: Wireless Fingerprinting, RF Fingerprinting, Bluetooth Fingerprinting)

Signal fingerprinting is a technique used in indoor positioning systems where the unique pattern of wireless signal strengths (such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or RFID) at specific locations within a building is recorded and stored as a reference map. During navigation, a mobile device…

Social Robot Navigation(also: Socially-aware robot navigation, Social navigation)

A subfield of robotics concerned with how a mobile robot should move through environments shared with humans — choosing paths, speeds, and timings that respect social norms as well as physical obstacle avoidance. Classic robot-navigation algorithms optimise for shortest-path…

Soundscape(also: Auditory Soundscape, Audio Landscape)

An auditory environment where multiple spatialized sounds represent objects or landmarks in all directions around a listener, creating an acoustic representation of physical space. In accessibility applications, soundscapes use spatial audio technology to make virtual objects…

Suitcase Robot(also: Suitcase-shaped robot, Robotic suitcase)

A class of autonomous navigation robots housed inside a rolling suitcase or carry-on-shaped enclosure, designed so that a blind or low-vision user can grip the handle and be guided to a destination while appearing to any onlooker to simply be walking with a piece of luggage. The…

Ultra-Wideband(also: UWB, Ultra wideband)

A short-range radio-frequency technology that uses very wide frequency bands (typically above 500 MHz) and very short pulses to enable centimetre-accurate distance and angle-of-arrival measurements between paired devices. UWB is increasingly used in accessibility for indoor…

Visual Inertial Odometry(also: VIO)

A motion tracking technique that combines camera-based visual tracking with inertial sensor data (gyroscopes and accelerometers) to estimate a device’s position and orientation in 3D space with high accuracy. VIO works by tracking salient visual features across consecutive video…

Wi-Fi Fingerprinting(also: WiFi Fingerprinting, Wi-Fi Positioning)

An indoor localization technique that estimates a device's position by comparing the signal strengths of nearby Wi-Fi access points against a pre-collected database of "fingerprints" — measurements taken at known reference points across a building. Because Wi-Fi access points…

ZigBee(also: IEEE 802.15.4)

A low-power, low-data-rate wireless networking protocol based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, designed for short-range communication between devices in personal area networks. In accessibility and assistive technology contexts, ZigBee has been used in indoor navigation and…

23 results.