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arXiv · 2602.12597

PISHYAR: A Socially Intelligent Smart Cane for Indoor Social Navigation and Multimodal Human-Robot Interaction for Visually Impaired People

Mahdi Haghighat Joo·Maryam Karimi Jafari·Alireza Taheri
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Abstract

This paper presents PISHYAR, a socially intelligent smart cane designed by our group to combine socially aware navigation with multimodal human-AI interaction to support both physical mobility and interactive assistance. The system consists of two components: (1) a social navigation framework implemented on a Raspberry Pi 5 that integrates real-time RGB-D perception using an OAK-D Lite camera, YOLOv8-based object detection, COMPOSER-based collective activity recognition, D* Lite dynamic path planning, and haptic feedback via vibration motors for tasks such as locating a vacant seat; and (2) an agentic multimodal LLM-VLM interaction framework that integrates speech recognition, vision language models, large language models, and text-to-speech, with dynamic routing between voice-only and vision-only modes to enable natural voice-based communication, scene description, and object localization from visual input. The system is evaluated through a combination of simulation-based tests, real-world field experiments, and user-centered studies. Results from simulated and real indoor environments demonstrate reliable obstacle avoidance and socially compliant navigation, achieving an overall system accuracy of approximately 80% under different social conditions. Group activity recognition further shows robust performance across diverse crowd scenarios. In addition, a preliminary exploratory user study with eight visually impaired and low-vision participants evaluates the agentic interaction framework through structured tasks and a UTAUT-based questionnaire reveals high acceptance and positive perceptions of usability, trust, and perceived sociability during our experiments. The results highlight the potential of PISHYAR as a multimodal assistive mobility aid that extends beyond navigation to provide socially interactive support for such users.

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Mahdi Haghighat Joo, Maryam Karimi Jafari, Alireza Taheri. 2026-02-13. PISHYAR: A Socially Intelligent Smart Cane for Indoor Social Navigation and Multimodal Human-Robot Interaction for Visually Impaired People. https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12597

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