  An estimated 253 million people have visual impairments. These visual
impairments affect everyday lives, and limit their understanding of the outside
world. This can pose a risk to health from falling or collisions. We propose a
solution to this through quick and detailed communication of environmental
spatial geometry through sound, providing the blind and visually impaired the
ability to understand their spatial environment through sound technology. The
model consists of fast object detection and 3D environmental mapping, which is
communicated through a series of quick sound notes. These sound notes are at
different frequencies, pitches, and arrangements in order to precisely
communicate the depth and location of points within the environment. Sounds are
communicated in the form of musical notes in order to be easily recognizable
and distinguishable. A unique algorithm is used to segment objects, providing
minimal accuracy loss and improvement from the normal O(n2 ) to O(n) (which is
significant, as N in point clouds can often be in the range of 105 ). In
testing, we achieved an R-value of 0.866 on detailed objects and an accuracy of
87.5% on an outdoor scene at night with large amounts of noise. We also provide
a supplementary video demo of our system.
