Smart Glasses for Safety and Hazard Awareness: A Review of Context-Aware Assistive Systems in Safety-Critical Environments

Global estimates indicate that approximately 285 million individuals live with visual impairments, confronting severe barriers to independent mobility in complex urban environments [1]. This navigation gap is most pronounced in high-traffic transit hubs; the Indian Railway system, for instance, manages over 23 million daily passengers [12] and an annual volume exceeding 8.6 billion [12], yet its navigational infrastructure remains largely inaccessible to the visually impaired. This paper provides a systematic review of the field, employing the PRISMA methodology to synthesize findings from 60 relevant articles published between 2015 and 2025 [2]. Our primary objective is to define the technical and design requirements necessary to bridge the "Information-Safety Gap" in safety-critical hubs. By shifting from basic "Assisted Seeing" to a paradigm of "Managed Reaction," we evaluate how Augmented Reality (AR) smart glasses—integrated with context-aware sensors and conversational User Experience (UX)—can transform hazardous environments into navigable spaces.