On augmenting the experience of people with mobility impairments while exploring the city: A case study with wearable devices

In the context of wayfinding systems, this paper describes the design and development of an augmented smartphone-based navigation system where wearable output devices have been put to good use to improve the mobility experience of people with disabilities. In particular, we developed a system as a proof of concept, exploiting smart glasses and smart bracelets to covey information about the navigated path in an augmented way. We conducted a preliminary field study with a few users with mobility impairments to evaluate the feasibility of our system. Results are really encouraging considering the approach of using different ways to covey notifications related to the direction to follow. At the same time, the outcome reveals that the smart glasses we used in the prototype influenced negatively the perception of the experience.