  The visual functions of visual prostheses such as field of view, resolution
and dynamic range, seriously restrict the person's ability to navigate in
unknown environments. Implanted patients still require constant assistance for
navigating from one location to another. Hence, there is a need for a system
that is able to assist them safely during their journey. In this work, we
propose an augmented reality navigation system for visual prosthesis that
incorporates a software of reactive navigation and path planning which guides
the subject through convenient, obstacle-free route. It consists on four steps:
locating the subject on a map, planning the subject trajectory, showing it to
the subject and re-planning without obstacles. We have also designed a
simulated prosthetic vision environment which allows us to systematically study
navigation performance. Twelve subjects participated in the experiment.
Subjects were guided by the augmented reality navigation system and their
instruction was to navigate through different environments until they reached
two goals, cross the door and find an object (bin), as fast and accurately as
possible. Results show how our augmented navigation system help navigation
performance by reducing the time and distance to reach the goals, even
significantly reducing the number of obstacles collisions, compared to other
baseline methods.
