Abstract:
The most common signage for people who are blind is restricted to tactile displays. This requires persons to be at the location of the signs before they can identify the information it bears. Using such signage as an aid in locating and traveling to a telephone booth, bus stop, elevator, public electronic terminal, building entrance or exit, leads to the paradoxical effect of having to already be there before one knows where it is. in addition to the problem of locating specific travel goals, very often blind travelers are unaware of the many amenities that sighted travelers encounter in a purely serendipitous fashion.

Remote Infrared Signage is particularly appropriate for open spaces where tactile signs are inappropriate; they label the environment for distant viewing. Remote infrared signs allow people to directly know not only what choices are available to them, but where in the environment these options are. Just as sighted persons visually scan the environment to acquire both label and direction information, remote infrared signs directly orient the person to the labeled goal and constantly update the person as to his progress to that goal. That is, unlike Braille, raised letters, or voice signs which passively label some location or give mobility instructions to some goal, remote infrared signage provides a repeating, directionally selective voice message which originates at the sign and is transmitted to a hand-held receiver. The direction selectivity is acharacteristic of the infrared message beam and ensures that persons using the device gets constant feedback about their relative location to the goal as they move towards it.