Wayfinding and Obstacle Avoidance System

A wayfinding and obstacle avoidance device, comprising:

• a means for obtaining pose data indicating the orientation and position of the device;
• a means for obtaining depth data indicating the distance and direction of a plurality of points within a field of view of the device;
• a means for providing sensory feedback;
• a processor;
• and
• a memory comprising program instructions that when executed by the processor cause the device to:
• acquire a normalized point cloud, wherein the normalized point cloud comprises a plurality of normalized points indicating the position and height of the plurality of points relative to a plane of reference;
• and
• group pluralities of normalized points in the normalized point cloud that are in close proximity to each other;
• reject groups containing a number of normalized points below a threshold;
• categorize any non-rejected groups as at least part of an object;
• categorize at least one object as matching at least one type within a set of predefined types;
• create an area map comprising a representation of the position of the at least one object relative to the device, and at least one type for the at least one object;
• and
• using the means for providing sensory feedback, produce a sensory representation related to the area map.

A wayfinding and obstacle avoidance device, comprising:

• an infrared sensor;
• an infrared emitter;
• a processor;
• an audio feedback module;
• and
• a memory comprising program instructions that when executed by the processor cause the device to:
• emit infrared light within a field of view using the infrared emitter;
• detect reflections of the infrared light using the infrared sensor;
• obtain depth data utilizing the detected reflections of the infrared light;
• group points of depth data that are in close proximity to each other;
• reject groups containing a number of points below a threshold;
• categorize any non-rejected groups as an object;
• create a grid of true/false values indicating the presence or absence of an object within parallel segments of the field of view;
• and
• provide audio feedback comprising a plurality of intermittent tones each corresponding to at least one of the parallel segments, wherein the pitch of the intermittent tone indicates the presence of at least one object within the corresponding parallel segment, wherein the repetition frequency of the intermittent tone and volume of the intermittent tone indicates the distance between the at least one object and the device.