R&D ProjectsDevelopment of Mobility Assist System for the People with Visual Impairment by Collaborative Creation of Multiple Generations

General Description of the Research Project

With Japan’s declining birth rate and aging population, support workers for disabled persons are expected to age. We therefore need to design a society in which sustainable support is provided to disabled persons to encourage social participation of disabled people and active lives for multiple generations and diverse groups.

This project aims at establishing a new type of mobility assist system that enables collaborative and mutual assistance between the visually impaired of multiple generations. Specifically, we will develop a navigation system that allows a general-purpose mobile terminal carried by the visually impaired to automatically collect information on possible barriers to walking and share information through a cloud service. Such information can replace what has been collected by local volunteers and generate big data in the cloud for sharing and distribution in real time. In addition, based on local experimental demonstrations, we will establish methods of designing local communities made distinct by mobility assistance for the visually impaired of multiple generations, and promote institutionalization of such schemes through legislation and standardization.