{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T11:10:21Z","timestamp":1785409821886,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,7]],"date-time":"2026-05-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778112000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001777","name":"University of Wollongong","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["6"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["6"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001777","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["6"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["6"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00jtmb277","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Navigating through everyday environments, like walking down a sidewalk, which many people often take for granted, is a difficult task for millions of people with vision impairments since it involves sophisticated object detection, depth perception, and situational awareness, all working seamlessly to guide a person through complex surroundings. Many current assistive devices for vision-impaired people are either expensive, information-overabundant, or missing critical information. This paper details our Vision Alarming System (VAS), which can improve the safety for blind and vision-impaired people by providing awareness of both positions and nature of nearby obstacles; thus, assisting users to make decisions to avoid collisions, reduce accidents and casualties, while enhance their experience, independence, and confidence when participating in traffic. VAS is an Artificial Intelligence\/Internet-of-Things (AI\/IoT)\u2014powered system developed utilizing the cutting-edge Raspberry Pi 5, a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor, and an AI depth camera, operating as different containers in a Docker architecture, and leveraging a Robotic Operating System 2 (ROS 2) backbone. VAS communicates the obstacle detections to users via Bluetooth interface, using the neural Text-To-Speech (TTS) system, namely, Piper, and the Sound eXchange (SoX) technologies. Our proof-of-concept system proves that VAS can be a standalone, open-source, extremely low cost, low power consumption assistive device which can synergistically utilize the cutting-edge AI\/IoT technologies to provide blind and vision-impaired users with an appropriate amount of critical information about their surrounding environments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s26102929","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,7]],"date-time":"2026-05-07T14:05:46Z","timestamp":1778162746000},"page":"2929","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["AI-Assisted Vision Alarming System for Blind and Vision- Impaired People"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2677-8721","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Le Chung","family":"Tran","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, University of Wollongong, Northfield Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0008-1209-5955","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sinh Khai","family":"Ly","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, University of Wollongong, Northfield Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rhys","family":"Blacklidge","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, University of Wollongong, Northfield Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4575-133X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jonathan","family":"Shemmell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, University of Wollongong, Northfield Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nathan","family":"Difford","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, University of Wollongong, Northfield Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Daniel Edward","family":"Cox","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Trans Traffic Survey, 3 Hepburn Way, Melbourne, VIC 3023, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9687-556X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Theresa","family":"Harada","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, University of Wollongong, Northfield Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"(2026, January 31). 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