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Sponsored by: |
Department of Veterans Affairs |
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Information provided by: | Department of Veterans Affairs |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT00829036 |
The purpose of the project is to find out what kinds of information are most useful to visually impaired people when they are moving around indoors and what kinds of controls will make it easy for visually impaired people to control a device to help orient them to an unfamiliar indoor space.
Condition | Intervention |
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Blindness |
Device: RFID device |
Study Type: | Interventional |
Study Design: | Non-Randomized, Open Label, Single Group Assignment, Efficacy Study |
Official Title: | Wayfinding Information Access System for People With Vision Loss |
Estimated Enrollment: | 100 |
Study Start Date: | April 2010 |
Estimated Study Completion Date: | March 2012 |
Estimated Primary Completion Date: | October 2011 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure) |
Arms | Assigned Interventions |
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1
Use of wayfinding device
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Device: RFID device
Use of wayfinding device to read RFID tags
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The greatest mobility problems for people with severe visual impairment are caused by gaps in available information about the environment -- environmental cues needed for orienting to salient landmarks in the surrounding environment and for wayfinding. Such informational cues are of great import because persons with severe visual impairment can become hopelessly lost if they cannot keep track of where they are at any given moment as they move along.
A newly developed long-range Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag reader might completely solve this problem. Previously, passive (i.e., not battery powered) RFID tags could only be read from a distance of 16 inches or less. This new tag reader can read multiple tags up to 18 feet away, and indicate the direction and range of each tag. At a cost of under 10 each, 250 RFID tags would have to be placed around an environment to equal the cost of 1 Braille sign ($25), yet the value-added in terms of available information at a distance is incredible: every object (landmark, door, water fountain, exit sign, chair, table, etc.) within a range of 18 feet would be able to "announce" its presence.
Visible signage equivalency could be achieved overnight. Further, Interface, Inc., a commercial floor manufacturer is now adhering RFID tags to the protected underside their 50X50 cm floor tiles. Using such flooring and the new long-range readers, a very elegant and affordable indoor GPS-like guidance system can be realized through triangulation of these RFID floor tiles. In the long run, as this RFID flooring infrastructure fills in, the most ideal solution could result, as it would enable the development of easily-managed building databases containing everything users would need to know to orient to new buildings and find their way around with ease.
Users would never be lost, as they would always know their current location and heading. In addition, such a building database would be much easier to maintain, as opposed to updating individual RFID tags, when building tenents move or renovations take place. Interface is very interested in supporting our research, and is donating 2500 square feet of their RFID flooring to the VA for this purpose.
The Research Questions to be answered by the herein proposed research are:
To address these Questions, the following Research Objectives have been established:
Ages Eligible for Study: | 18 Years and older |
Genders Eligible for Study: | Both |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | No |
Inclusion Criteria:
Must be blind with no better vision than light perception and must be able to do 3 hours of walking (with many breaks)
Exclusion Criteria:
N/A
Contact: Erica W Watkins, BA | (404) 321-6111 ext 5830 | erica.watkins@va.gov |
Contact: Becky Polon, BS | (404) 321-6111 ext 6254 | rebecca.polon@gmail.com |
United States, Georgia | |
Atlanta VA Medical and Rehab Center, Decatur | |
Decatur, Georgia, United States, 30033 |
Principal Investigator: | David Ross, MSEE Med | Atlanta VA Medical and Rehab Center, Decatur |
Responsible Party: | Department of Veterans Affairs ( Ross, David - Principal Investigator ) |
Study ID Numbers: | C6690R |
Study First Received: | January 22, 2009 |
Last Updated: | July 14, 2009 |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT00829036 History of Changes |
Health Authority: | United States: Federal Government |
Rehabilitation Sensory Aid |
Signs and Symptoms Sensation Disorders Vision Disorders |
Eye Diseases Neurologic Manifestations Blindness |
Signs and Symptoms Sensation Disorders Vision Disorders Eye Diseases |
Nervous System Diseases Neurologic Manifestations Blindness |