{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,1]],"date-time":"2025-10-01T15:55:04Z","timestamp":1759334104906,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,30]],"date-time":"2025-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1759190400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Union\u2013NextGenerationEU","award":["ECS00000035"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ECS00000035"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.mdpi.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Algorithms"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Vision is a critical component of daily life, and its loss significantly hinders an individual\u2019s ability to navigate, particularly when using public transportation systems. To address this challenge, this paper introduces a novel approach for accurately identifying bus route numbers and destinations, designed to assist visually impaired individuals in navigating urban transit networks. Our system integrates object detection, image enhancement, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies to achieve reliable and precise recognition of bus information. We employ a custom-trained You Only Look Once version 8 (YOLOv8) model to isolate the front portion of buses as the region of interest (ROI), effectively eliminating irrelevant text and advertisements that often lead to errors. To further enhance accuracy, we utilize the Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Network (ESRGAN) to improve image resolution, significantly boosting the confidence of the OCR process. Additionally, a post-processing step involving a pre-defined list of bus routes and the Levenshtein algorithm corrects potential errors in text recognition, ensuring reliable identification of bus numbers and destinations. Tested on a dataset of 120 images featuring diverse bus routes and challenging conditions such as poor lighting, reflections, and motion blur, our system achieved an accuracy rate of 95%. This performance surpasses existing methods and demonstrates the system\u2019s potential for real-world application. By providing a robust and adaptable solution, our work aims to enhance public transit accessibility, empowering visually impaired individuals to navigate cities with greater independence and confidence.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/a18100616","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,30]],"date-time":"2025-09-30T09:12:23Z","timestamp":1759223543000},"page":"616","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Enhancing Mobility for the Blind: An AI-Powered Bus Route Recognition System"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9567-163X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shehzaib","family":"Shafique","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit for Visually Impaired People (U-VIP), Italian Institute of Technology, 16152 Genova, Italy"}]},{"given":"Gian Luca","family":"Bailo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pattern Analysis and Computer Vision (PAVIS), Italian Institute of Technology, 16152 Genova, Italy"}]},{"given":"Monica","family":"Gori","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit for Visually Impaired People (U-VIP), Italian Institute of Technology, 16152 Genova, Italy"}]},{"given":"Giulio","family":"Sciortino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pattern Analysis and Computer Vision (PAVIS), Italian Institute of Technology, 16152 Genova, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2262-4872","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alessio","family":"Del Bue","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pattern Analysis and Computer Vision (PAVIS), Italian Institute of Technology, 16152 Genova, Italy"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.1016\/j.joco.2016.04.002","article-title":"Outdoor difficulties experienced by a group of visually impaired Iranian people","volume":"28","author":"Riazi","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. 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