# Leveraging Maps and Computer Vision to Support Indoor Navigation for Blind Travelers

> **NIH NIH R01** · SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE · 2020 · $406,525

## Abstract

Leveraging Maps and Computer Vision to Support Indoor
Navigation for Blind Travelers
Abstract
COVID-19 has made traveling as a blind or visually impaired person much riskier and more
difficult than before the pandemic. As a result, people with visual impairments may limit their
essential travel such as trips to the doctor’s office, the pharmacy and grocery shopping and
walks for exercise or leisure. Accordingly, the goal of this COVID Supplement, which builds on
and expands the work being conducted by the parent grant, is to develop a COVID map tool
that provides fully accessible, non-visual access to maps. This tool will allow visually impaired
persons to explore maps and preview routes from the comfort of their home, allowing them to
plan their travel along safer, less congested routes using crowdedness data. In addition, the tool
will present county-by-county COVID incidence data in a fully accessible form, which will inform
their travel plans over greater distances. Thus, this project will give visually impaired persons
the tools and confidence to undertake safer, more independent travel.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10220178
- **Project number:** 3R01EY029033-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
- **Principal Investigator:** JAMES M COUGHLAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $406,525
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-04-01 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10220178

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10220178, Leveraging Maps and Computer Vision to Support Indoor Navigation for Blind Travelers (3R01EY029033-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10220178. Licensed CC0.

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