A mobility aid system for visually impaired people on the historical walls of Lucca city, Tuscany, Italy

The Research Project "Walls for All" (“Le Mura per Tutti”) aims at the realization on the historical walls of Lucca city, Tuscany, Italy, of a mobility aid system for visually impaired people able to provide guidance and context information on a predefined outdoor safe path, thanks to a traditional white cane equipped with custom electronics (Smart Cane) and a smartphone featuring an ad-hoc developed Android application. The chosen scenario is allowing living of an outdoor public place of a relevant tourist/cultural interest. The Smart Cane allows the user to follow the path thanks to a tactile vibration provided by the handle when the smart cane tip is over the predefined path, which is implemented by means of buried cables in which a modulated current flows. By means of a small joystick on the cane handle, the user may query the smartphone application and be provided with vocal guidance information on the route and information on the surrounding points of interest (e.g. historical buildings, benches, rest points, etc.), according to the user\´s current position derived from the smartphone internal GPS receiver and from the path detection data provided by the Smart Cane through a Bluetooth connection. The system path infrastructure is currently being installed on a route longer than 1 km on the walls of Lucca city for the final testing and setup phase.