Development of a novel type of audible traffic signal for the blind and visually impaired pedestrians and comparison of ITS acoustic guiding function with the presently used audible traffic signal.

The authors have analyzed the performance of the blind and visually impaired pedestrians crossing intersections at which audible traffic signals (ATS) were equipped and found that they seem to have severe difficulties in taking direction at the starting point of the crosswalk and to maintain direction toward the opposite side of the crosswalk. A type of ATS has been developed that provides the acoustic clue to walk toward the destination. In principle, the new ATS emits sounds alternately from two speakers positioned on both ends of the crosswalk. By using this ATS, it is inferred that blind pedestrians are able to walk at any point on the crosswalk using sound clues emitted from the opposite side of the road. In comparison with the present ATS system, it was found that the new ATS is able to indicate a certain direction to walk while the effect was almost negligible in the present ATS.