https://www.reutersevents.com/marketing/mobile-product/beacons-help-guide-visually-impaired-and-blind-through-urban-areas

You mean something like beacons? This article is 6 years old, but there has been a number of systems now that use them for indoor navigation. I set up the beacons for my organization's building a few years ago, and they work the the app Blindsquare. They don't even require a client have their phone be set up previously, the phone receives the information from the beacons and the internet (and can be updated on the fly).

There are a few issues with integrating these kinds of technology into a cane. One big one is the cost. The higher the cost, the less likely it is people can afford it. And if the system is accessible by phone, it doesn't make sense to buy an expensive product to do the same thing that an existing device can do.

The other is environmental. There is a two white canes with ultrasonic sensors on them.... One is not waterproof at all, and the other claims it is "water resistant". But that cane suggests in heavier rains, you fold the cane and put it away. So.... if it is raining, you can't take it out and head home. Or you can risk damaging a $1000 dollar cane.

For some elderly people, the weight might also be a factor. Although lithium batteries have definitely made portable devices lighter.

for home type situations i would always just hold my cane vertically a bit above the floor, so i do not damage flooring or personal property and walk slow and cautious.

in a home i know. there are already some cheap options if you only need 3-4 points. like buying a whistle or clap key ring that costs £20-30, and attaching it to a doorway or on top of a orientation point. in my own home i can put it on the living room wall and then arrange my furniture to guide me to other places. they come with different trigger sounds and different alarm sounds, so you can have multiple in close places.

when i go to someones house i don't know, we chuck one or two on the doors and then if i need to orientate myself i can. when i leave, i take them away, or if i go there often, they turn them off when i go.

so this would be better for indoor like public spaces, small shops, hotels with stairs and crowded spaces, where some of the issue comes from space in relation to other people. so the sensor would need to be able to detect other peoples movements.

i don't know many people that would be interested in this TBH. you can probably make this into a good product, and some wealthy people may buy some, but it is not going to be beneficial enough to warrant the cost it will likely be.

it would be a good idea for hospitals and other establishments to have one or two of these devices though, with preset locations to help someone get around after the initial guide around. for how i would use this, i think it sounds more like something you would use to train yourself to know locations rather than use for a long period, considering what else you can get out there.

The hard part with beacons (and this is ultimately a "beacon" project) is measuring exactly where the beacons are located.

GPS (and all other beacons) work by triangulation - if the phone/cane/GPS sensor can see one beacon that is broadcasting a signal, you know (based on signal strength) how far you are from that single beacon. Image a circle, the beacon is in the center and you are somewhere on the radius. Add a second beacon and you now have two circles that overlap at two places - your sensor knows two locations you might be. Add a third beacon, and now you can pinpoint (X,Y) on a 2D plane. Add a fourth beacon and you now have (X,Y,Z) coordinates. Adding additional beacons helps prevent dead zones and improve accuracy.

The hard part is the location of the beacons must be known *exactly*. In the case of GPS, the orbits are known precisely. In the case of a blind beacon system, this means mapping each room and getting exact dimensions, then putting each beacon at an exact position and height in each room. Once this is all done, you can use BlindSquare or whatever app you wish (including one on a cane) to navigate with very good results (there are many places that use this type of navigation for the blind). The beacons are not super expensive, but the process of getting everything mapped and measured chews up a lot of money - pocket change for a major airport, but fairly cost prohibitive for a nonprofit or a home. Most of the beacons use Low Energy Bluetooth, which has a range of ~30ft depending on walls and obstacles, so you would need to figure out the coverage you would need.

There are not "open" or low-cost solutions on the market for this problem (not for lack of trying - indoor navigation is a huge need for a LOT of people). The biggest cost is mapping everything; if you are familiar with a Roomba you might know that the robot vacuums figure out a map of where everything is by just randomly driving around; there is no reason why you couldn't get slap some beacons up and get 95% of the way towards a functional map with an AI Roomba-like device wandering around getting signal readings for a few days.

There is no reason you could not get all the tech needed to run this in a cane and not add crazy amounts of space or cost - it would essentially be the same components that go into a smartwatch, plus a speaker and a couple of buttons and other goodies.

TLDR; Yes, such a device would be helpful (maybe not so much at home, but at work or larger properties) and make lots of money IF it works well; the things on the market I have seen so far have been spectacularly unimpressive.

If we’re talking something to navigate familiar spaces, no. I, and I think every other blind person, learns to navigate their own living space without a cane, and often also other spaces they visit frequently (I don’t use my cane at my fiancé’s house, nor my siblings’ houses, nor work, once I’ve learned my way around. But I will use my cane if I’m visiting somewhere for the first time.

If we’re talking about unfamiliar spaces, then you may be thinking of something more like BlindSquare, which is a smartphone app that reads beacons placed in a particular area, so you get audio cues as you walk near the beacons. As it’s a smartphone app, you don’t need to buy a specialized device (your phone can do all sorts of other stuff, too).

Working on better indoor way finding isn’t a bad idea. GPS does work indoors to an extent, although it can’t detect what floor you’re on, and is worse in some buildings than others. But I think of you can work with existing apps, or design something that doesn’t need specialized (expensive!) equipment, it would be better.