Indoor Navigation Technologies Based on RFID Systems to Assist Visually Impaired People: A Review and a Proposal

This paper presents a study of the main contributions, in terms of the development of electronics and RFID technologies, to assist people with visual disabilities in their mobilization in indoor spaces. The main aspects taken into consideration when designing an assistive system for people with visual impairments for planning and execution of a movement from one place to another and/or for exploration of a site of interest autonomously are included. This study is important to identify the main technologies based on circuits and systems, electronics, ICT, and RF communication that have been proposed to help people with this type of disability in their indoor mobilization, as well as the techniques of location, navigation, orientation, and detection of objects, among other important functionalities for this type of systems. This work allowed us to propose the conceptual design of a novel system based on RFID and electronics technologies to help visually impaired people in their navigation in indoor environments, which will contribute to their social inclusion.