从地理信息系统角度探究盲人户外导航的几个关键问题

利用现代信息技术来弥补盲人在出行时空间感知的缺失,是提高盲人户外行动能力、城市生活品质的重要手段。相关理论与技术的研究已经逐步展开,出现了多种利用RFID、红外、蓝牙、WiFi、超声波、图像识别等信息感知技术开发的助行及路障侦测辅助工具,但如何进一步获取丰富的地理信息（包括地理语义信息）,并以此选择便于行走、风险较低的路径,仍然是盲人户外导航的难题。为了设计能够服务于盲人户外行走的地理信息系统,国外相关研究开始意识到适合于盲人空间感知需求的地理信息组织及其利用策略是盲人户外导航的重要基础之一;而国内的相关研究相对较少。因此,本文从地理信息系统（GIS）的视角,对盲人户外导航所涉及的地理信息需求分析、盲人用户外地理数据建模及引导算法3个关键点及其相关研究进行分析与论述,指出当前存在问题及发展趋势,并促进地理信息技术服务于户外导盲领域的发展。

A Discussion about Some Key Points of Outdoor Blind Guidance Based on Geographic Information System

Geographic information technologies are playing increasingly significant roles in supplementing the blind with spatial cognition, enhancing their mobility of outdoor activities and their quality of life in urban area. Increasing researches have appeared in the fields of electronics and computer science. Technologies related to RFID, infrared, Bluetooth, WiFi, ultrasonic and image recognition have been employed to develop tools for urban barriers detection. Barricade detection with electronic tools; however, cannot well satisfy the needs of the blind’s outdoor activities. As a matter of fact, researchers become increasingly aware of the importance of geographic information (including semantic information), with which the more familiar and convenient paths can be chosen, and the risks of outdoor activities can be reduced. With the development of geographic information technology, the abroad correlated researches have focused on the exploration of the requirements of spatial perception for the blind, and these researchers set geographic information to be the foundation of assisting outdoor blind guidance. Accordingly, geographic information technologies are integrated with other technologies to serve the blind guidance. However, this kind of research is quite rare in China. From the perspective of geographic information, this article gives a summary of relevant researchillustrates current issues, and point out the development tendency. It also aims at providing essential theoretical support for the development of related hardware and software, and further promoting the application of geographic information technologies in the field of blind service.