Cooperative Agreement 90BI0031

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (CFDA 47.070 - Computer and Information Science and Engineering program) to the University of Maine System provides $1,126,197 to develop a multisensory navigation assistance tool to aid individuals with visual impairments. The three-year project aims to: Identify information access requirements and optimize delivery via multisensory smartphone interfaces to support indoor navigation for blind and visually impaired individuals. Create...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Early-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) Project Grant, awarded under CFDA 47.041 Engineering, will leverage virtual reality (VR) and wearable technologies to study how individuals with visual impairment navigate through crowded urban environments. The $300,000 grant, awarded to New York University, aims to elucidate the sensorimotor interactions and cognitive processes underpinning the navigation of persons with visual impairment through...

This $1,009,268 Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute's Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867) to XR Navigation Inc. aims to transform the accessibility of digital thematic maps for blind and low vision individuals. The project will develop and evaluate a multimodal, chat-based digital map viewer called AUDIOM that is fully compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). AUDIOM will provide blind and low vision users with an integrated auditory, tactile, and visual...

This $504,984 federal Project Grant from the National Eye Institute's Vision Research program, awarded on July 1, 2025, supports the development of a gamified, multisensory training and navigation system called MultiNav for blind and visually impaired people. The project aims to create an integrated solution that converges pre-journey map learning with real-time navigation assistance, delivered through a smartphone application. MultiNav advances the state-of-the-art in multimodal access...

This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (CFDA 93.173 - Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders) provides $306,073 to Iotamotion, Inc. to develop a navigation-based cochlear implant insertion system that optimizes trajectory and enables slow, consistent electrode array insertions. The goal is to improve short and long-term hearing outcomes for cochlear implant patients by enhancing structural preservation of the...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $570,780 Project Grant under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) program to Lehigh University to develop an inclusive community-wide location-based services system called CityGuide. The project aims to design, deploy, and evaluate seamless and scalable indoor/outdoor location-based services that provide auxiliary wayfinding, emergency evacuation, remote assistance, and transit support for people with disabilities and the...

This Project Grant award, funded by the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research), provides $616,316.00 to the Regents of the University of Michigan to develop a multi-modal interface for non-visual navigation. The project aims to create a hardware and software system embedded in a glasses frame that provides hands-free, multi-sensory guidance for blind and visually impaired individuals. The system will integrate information from various sources, including a camera, to automatically...

The federal Project Grant award titled "VIS4ION-FIT (VISUALLY IMPAIRED SMART SERVICE SYSTEM FOR SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ONBOARD NAVIGATION FOR FITNESS)" is funded by the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) for a total of $1,499,660.00. The award period runs from September 15, 2025 to August 31, 2029. The grant supports the implementation and evaluation of the VIS4ION-FIT mobile application and wearable system, which uses artificial intelligence to provide navigation...

The University of California Irvine received a $200,000 cooperative agreement award from the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology under the Science, Technology, Business and/or Education Outreach federal grant program (CFDA 11.620). The award will support the Demonstration Project: Ultimate Personal Indoor Navigator (UPIN) for Emergency Responders through September 30, 2022. The project aims to evaluate the benefits and impacts of NIST research and development...

This federal Project Grant award of $621,250 from the National Eye Institute's Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867) supports the development of a gaze-contingent AI-enabled low vision assistive technology (GALVAT) system. The project aims to reduce information overload for individuals with severe vision loss by defining a personalized region of interest based on the user's remaining visual field and gaze, allowing the AI-powered system to focus on relevant targets. The project is a...