Designing AR Visualizations to Facilitate Stair Navigation for People with Low Vision

Navigating stairs is one of the most dangerous mobility challenges for people with low vision (PLV), who have visual impairments that fall short of blindness. Prior research contributed systems for stair navigation that provide audio or tactile feedback, but PLV have usable vision and don’t typically use nonvisual aids. We conducted the first exploration of augmented reality (AR) visualizations to facilitate stair navigation for PLV. We designed visualizations for a projection-based AR platform and smartglasses, considering the different characteristics of these platforms. For projection, we designed visual highlights that are projected directly on the stairs. In contrast, for smartglasses that have a limited vertical field of view, we designed visualizations that indicate the user’s position on the stairs, without directly augmenting the stairs themselves. We evaluated our visualizations on each platform with 12 PLV. We found that the visualizations for projection AR increased participants’ walking speed. Moreover, our designs on both platforms largely increased participants’ self-reported psychological security.