Sole-Sense: An Intelligent Footwear System for Perceptive Navigation Assistance
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Abstract
Recent developments in IoT have equipped wearable intelligent devices to assist visually impaired individuals in daily navigation. Smart walking shoes have recently emerged as a promising device due to their uninterrupted, hands-free functionality. This literature review raises awareness about the available IoT-enabled smart shoes developed in the period spanning 2023-2025. The existing literature showed that most of the developed systems mainly included ultrasonic sensors, cameras, and GPS, along with an onboard processor for obstacle detection and environmental awareness as well as live notifications via Vibration and Voice outputs. There were also many studies incorporating AI with smartphone interaction assistance for enhanced perception and interaction capabilities. Approaches surveyed in this paper are categorized based on sensing techniques and system intelligence and compared based on their functionality, cost, and usability. Some major challenges associated with the accuracy of the sensors, energy efficiency, comfort, and real-world performance are discussed. Finally, this survey identifies research lacuna and outlines the future directions for developing smart footwear.
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