Patent ID: 7267281

Claim:
A location orienting system for a blind or visually impaired user comprising: a plurality of barcode sites placed at a plurality of fixed predefined ground-level locations within a geographic area, each said barcode site containing in a fixed predefined ground-level position thereat a unique barcode that represents information about its specific geographical location in barcode format; a cane configured to be carried by the user, said cane having a tubular body with a handle at one end and a tip at its opposite end, said cane containing a barcode scanner within said tubular body adjacent the tip end of said cane, said barcode scanner adapted to generate and pass a scanner beam through a window in said tubular body to scan the barcode at one or more of the plurality of barcode sites at which the user is positioned and to generate a binary code signal in response to such scan, said window located adjacent said tip end in a relatively rearward facing portion of the tubular body relative to the user's direction of travel when the user extends the cane forwardly during use, the rearward facing portion of the tubular body positioned at an acute angle relative to the ground and the scanner beam projected substantially normal to the ground; means for transmitting said binary code signal to a microprocessor; a microprocessor coupled with a speech synthesizer to translate said binary code signal into an audible spoken-language signal; and means for transmitting said spoken-language signal to an earphone worn by the user whereby the user is apprised of his or her geographical location.