AUDIO NAVIGATION ASSISTANCE Russian patent published in 2019 - IPC A61H3/06 A61F9/08 G01C21/20 

FIELD: medicine.

SUBSTANCE: group of inventions relates to medical equipment, specifically to auxiliary navigation devices for people with visual impairments. Head-mounted computing device for providing navigation assistance to a user in an environment via audio output comprises one or more depth sensors for generating depth image data from the environment, one or more visible light sensors for generating visible image data from the environment, one or more transducers and a navigation module executed by a processor of the head-mounted computing device, the navigation module comprising a familiar navigation mode, in which the navigation assistance is adapted taking into account that the environment is familiar to the user, and unfamiliar navigation mode, in which the navigation assistance is adapted taking into account that the environment is not familiar to the user, wherein the navigation module is configured to, using the depth image data and visible image data, generate a three-dimensional mesh of at least a portion of the environment, using a machine learning method, determine whether the user has previously visited this environment, in response to determining that the user has previously visited this environment at least a predetermined number of times, enabling familiar navigation mode using the three-dimensional mesh, detecting at least one characteristic feature in the environment, when operating in the familiar navigation mode and based on the detection of a characteristic output feature of a first audio navigation cue to the user through one or more transducers, and when operating in unfamiliar navigation mode and based on the detection of a characteristic output feature of a second audio navigation cue to the user through one or more transducers, wherein the second audio navigation cue is different from the first audio navigation cue. Method for providing assistance to a user in navigating an environment is performed using the device.

EFFECT: use of inventions widens the range navigation assistance for people with physiological visual impairments.

10 cl, 9 dwg