{"ID":2866948,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.18672","arxiv_id":"2509.18672","title":"NaviSense: A Multimodal Assistive Mobile application for Object Retrieval by Persons with Visual Impairment","abstract":"People with visual impairments often face significant challenges in locating and retrieving objects in their surroundings. Existing assistive technologies present a trade-off: systems that offer precise guidance typically require pre-scanning or support only fixed object categories, while those with open-world object recognition lack spatial feedback for reaching the object. To address this gap, we introduce 'NaviSense', a mobile assistive system that combines conversational AI, vision-language models, augmented reality (AR), and LiDAR to support open-world object detection with real-time audio-haptic guidance. Users specify objects via natural language and receive continuous spatial feedback to navigate toward the target without needing prior setup. Designed with insights from a formative study and evaluated with 12 blind and low-vision participants, NaviSense significantly reduced object retrieval time and was preferred over existing tools, demonstrating the value of integrating open-world perception with precise, accessible guidance.","short_abstract":"People with visual impairments often face significant challenges in locating and retrieving objects in their surroundings. Existing assistive technologies present a trade-off: systems that offer precise guidance typically require pre-scanning or support only fixed object categories, while those with open-world object r...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.18672","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.18672v1","authors":"[\"Ajay Narayanan Sridhar\",\"Fuli Qiao\",\"Nelson Daniel Troncoso Aldas\",\"Yanpei Shi\",\"Mehrdad Mahdavi\",\"Laurent Itti\",\"Vijaykrishnan Narayanan\"]","published":"2025-09-23T05:45:11Z","proceeding":"cs.HC","tasks":"[\"cs.HC\",\"cs.AI\"]","methods":"[\"Language Model\"]","has_code":false}