METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR SENSING OBSTACLES IN AN INDOOR ENVIRONMENT

A system of determining a distance between a mobile electronic device and an obstacle in an environment includes an electronic device, and a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium includes one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the electronic device to obtain from a camera of a mobile electronic device one or more images of one or more obstacles in a surrounding environment, and apply a convolution neural network to one or more of the obtained images to generate a one-dimensional array of depth perception estimates. The array includes one or more angle-distance pairs. an angle value of each angle-distance pair represents an angle of one or more of the obstacles relative to the camera. A distance value of each angle-distance pairs represents an estimated distance between the camera and one or more of the obstacles at the corresponding angle of the angle-distance pair.