# Assistive Mobile Application for Fire Emergency Evacuation of Visually Impaired People

## TL;DR

A mobile app helps visually impaired people evacuate safely during fires by calculating real-time routes using sensor data and providing audio-visual guidance.

## Contribution

A decentralized, on-device mobile app using a modified Dijkstra’s algorithm for dynamic evacuation routes tailored to visually impaired users.

## Key findings

- Field tests showed shorter evacuation times compared to static guidance systems.
- The app’s decentralized design ensures functionality even if building infrastructure fails.
- The system complies with fire safety standards and prioritizes user privacy.

## Abstract

The emergency evacuation of visually impaired individuals during fire incidents presents critical challenges that require innovative technological solutions. While existing evacuation systems provide static route guidance, they fail to adapt dynamically to evolving fire conditions, blocked passages, or dangerous zones in buildings with multiple routes and exits. This paper presents a comprehensive implementation of a mobile application built with Flutter/Dart that addresses these limitations by enabling real-time, dynamic route computation based on live sensor data. The presented system operates in a decentralized manner, performing all critical computations on-device to ensure its functionality even when some parts of the building infrastructure fail. A dynamic route calculation modified Dijkstra’s algorithm was implemented on each user’s phone for guidance. If initial path adjustments are needed, they are computed from sensor data to evaluate fire evolution and other relevant factors, including the user’s current position and crowd congestion. An audio–visual interface was designed to provide navigation instructions and to help users follow safety routes efficiently. Field testing with visually impaired participants demonstrated significant improvements in evacuation efficiency, with shorter evacuation times than traditional static guidance approaches. The system architecture complies with international fire safety standards while maintaining user privacy through a no-tracking design philosophy. This work contributes to both theoretical advances in adaptive evacuation algorithms and practical insights for deploying assistive technologies in emergency scenarios.