In India, there were 7.2 million blind people in 1990, which rose to 8.8 million in 2015, making the country the home of almost a quarter of the total 36 million blind people. Blind persons encounter obstacles, humps, crowds, animals on road etc while on walks. A survey of navigation systems to assist the visually impaired and blind is conducted. The study highlights various features, tools, classifiers and technologies used for real time assistance. Also focus is on challenges and issues. It helps for development of tools to assist the visually impaired and blind for smoother, safer and hassle-free real-time navigation. The literature review reveals that there are no much efforts which can assist the blind to a greater extent so that the dependence on others is almost reduced. The state-of-the-art mobile phones can be loaded with an app which will be able to grab the scenes continuously, analyze them for the presence of obstacles and help the blind to overcome the obstacle.
obstacle detection, Navigation system, smartwatch, sensors, Geo2Tag platform, talking tactile map, NFC, GNSS.