The innovations in the field of specialized navigation systems have become prominent research topics. As an applied science for people with special needs, navigation aids for the visually impaired are a key sociotechnique that helps users to independently navigate and access needed resources indoors and outdoors. This paper adopts the informetric analysis method to assess the current research and explore trends in navigation systems for the visually impaired based on bibliographic records retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). A total of 528 relevant publications from 2010 to 2020 were analyzed. This work answers the following questions: What are the publication characteristics and most influential publication sources? Who are the most active and influential authors? What are their research interests and primary contributions to society? What are the featured key studies in the field? What are the most popular topics and research trends, described by keywords? Additionally, we closely investigate renowned works that use different multisensor fusion methods, which are believed to be the bases of upcoming research. The key findings of this work aim to help upcoming researchers quickly move into the field, as they can easily grasp the frontiers and the trend of R&D in the research area. Moreover, we suggest the researchers embrace smartphone-based agile development, as well as pay more attention to phone-based prominent frameworks such as ARCore or ARKit, to achieve a fast prototyping for their proposed systems. This study also provides references for the associated fellows by highlighting the critical junctures of the modern assistive travel aids for people with visual impairments.

Electric power wheelchairs (EPWs) enhance the mobility capability of the elderly and the disabled, while the human-machine interaction (HMI) determines how well the human intention will be precisely delivered and how human-machine system cooperation will be efficiently conducted. A bibliometric quantitative analysis of 1154 publications related to this research field, published between 1998 and 2020, was conducted. We identified the development status, contributors, hot topics, and potential future research directions of this field. We believe that the combination of intelligence and humanization of an EPW HMI system based on human-machine collaboration is an emerging trend in EPW HMI methodology research. Particular attention should be paid to evaluating the applicability and benefits of the EPW HMI methodology for the users, as well as how much it contributes to society. This study offers researchers a comprehensive understanding of EPW HMI studies in the past 22 years and latest trends from the evolutionary footprints and forward-thinking insights regarding future research.

Background: Youths with lower limb dysfunction display low levels of sports participation, which limits their growth and self-development, both physically and mentally. Recently, VR technology has proven its profound value in the psychological evaluation and treatment, rehabilitation, and immersive training of people in need. We have proposed, designed, and developed a VR rock-climbing game for youths with lower-limb dysfunction that allows them to engage in enjoyable and purposeful in-game tasks that simultaneously bring about intensive real-world exercise. Methods: Pilot studies were conducted on college students whose lower limbs were fixed to chairs. Heart rate monitoring, a flow questionnaire, interviews, and observation were conducted for each participant to evaluate the impact of the VR rock-climbing game. The collected data were trimmed on the basis of Cronbach’s alpha and corrected item–total correlation (CITC) to guarantee the data’s reliability. Results: The average value of each flow experience dimension was greater than 4 (0.76 < SD < 0.91). According to the flow-based analysis and the whole-process feeling distribution (WPFD), the evaluated study brought about the participants’ happiness and a sense of mastery and achievement. Conclusions: By bringing about a deep and enjoyable immersion in VR, it remarkably promotes the participants’ intention to participate in exercises.