Wayfinding Information Access System for People With Vision Loss

February 18, 2014 updated by: US Department of Veterans Affairs
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.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

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 tenants 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:

  1. How should environmental information be organized and parsed according to actual needs so that persons can be provided with needed information without inundating them with useless and/or distracting information in the process?
  2. How should a user interface be structured to offer needed information in an easily controlled and useable fashion?

To address these Questions, the following Research Objectives have been established:

  1. Determine what kinds of information are needed according to (a) a characterization of individual needs, O&M abilities, and degree of useful residual vision;
  2. Develop a structured database of information parsed and organized according to information associated with specific participant characterization clusters as associated with individual needs, residual vision, etc.;
  3. Develop an optimal user interface for the control and delivery of needed information adaptable to the individual needs of the participants;
  4. Develop an RFID reader antenna that can triangulate RFID tags in flooring to determine the user's current location and heading, as well as identify the information and location of other tags of interest on objects in the surround; and
  5. Construct and Evaluate a Wayfinding Prototype as specified by the results of the above objectives.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
24

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Georgia
      • Decatur, Georgia, United States, 30033
        • Atlanta VA Medical and Rehab Center, Decatur

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

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

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Wayfinding Prototype
A Wayfinding Prototype is evaluated in terms of the time it takes subjects to use this device to walk to specific indoor locations versus baseline walking time.
Device: Wayfinding Prototype
A Wayfinding Prototype is used by subjects to determine any advantages over current standard of rehabilitation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Mean Percent (Prototype / Baseline) Time
Time Frame: 2 hours
The outcome measure for each subject is the mean of the (Prototype Time / Baseline Time) across 12 trials. The outcome measure for the experiment is the mean of 24 individual subject mean scores. This mean outcome measure is expressed as a percentage of the mean Baseline Time, where improved performance is represented by a percentage that is less than 100 percent of the Baseline Time. The lower the percentage, the better the performance improvement.
2 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
US Department of Veterans Affairs

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: David A Ross, MSEE Med, Atlanta VA Medical and Rehab Center, Decatur

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
October 1, 2012

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
December 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
December 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
January 22, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 22, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
January 26, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
April 2, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
February 18, 2014

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
February 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • C6690-R

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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