Touvigation: Embodied Progressive Guidance for Blind and Low-Vision Users

Touvigation is an egocentric wearable system that shifts LLM-powered visual assistance for blind and low-vision (BLV) users from passive snapshot descriptions to body-anchored, progressive guidance. Existing tools often describe the world as perceived by sighted users, with unstable spatial reference frames and unembodied metrics that fail to translate into physical action.

Grounded in a formative study with ten BLV participants, Touvigation is designed around three core principles: (1) a fixed body-centric reference anchor that consistently treats the user as the spatial origin; (2) embodied metrics such as arm spans, clock-face directions, and step counts that map directly to physical actions; and (3) a layered sensing envelope based on the user's navigation tools (hand, cane, and foot) that prioritizes information by actionable proximity. Together, these principles enable BLV-centered, proactive guidance that bridges the gap between AI perception and physical action.