REAL CORP 2010 Proceedings/Tagungsband Vienna, 18-20 May 2010 – http://www.corp.at Editors: Manfred SCHRENK, Vasily V. POPOVICH, Peter ZEILE 1353 Ways4all: Indoor navigation for visually impaired and blind people Martijn Kiers, Tina Sovec (Dipl. Ing. Martijn Kiers, FH-JOANNEUM GmbH; Energie-, Verkehrs- und Umweltmanagement, Werk-VI-Straße 46, 8605 Kapfenberg, Austria, martijn.kiers@fh-joanneum.at) (Dipl. Ing. Tina Sovec, FH-JOANNEUM GmbH; Energie-, Verkehrs- und Umweltmanagement, Werk-VI-Straße 46, 8605 Kapfenberg, Austria, tina.sovec@fh-joanneum.at) 1 ABSTRACT The project “Ways4all” is using passive RFID-tags to indentify indoor routes, barriers and means of public transport for visually impaired and blind people. The basis for this project is the tactile guidance system. At all strategic spots inside the building (entrance, platforms, intersections) a passive RFID-tag will be placed into the tactile guidance system. Those RFID-tags send their unique code trough an RFID-reader to the user’s smartphone. The smartphone reads the code and sends it on to an RFID-database server where all the tags together with some additional information are saved as location points. Before leaving the user has to enter his/her destination on the smartphone, by which the server (Gerwei- Method) calculates the optimal route based on the location, the moving direction and the user profile. The Gerwei-Method is a new developed navigation routing software based on a standard routing algorithm. The smartphone receives real-time routing information (including additional information, like interruptions, delays and platform changes) from the database server. On the smartphone the routing information will be sent in an acoustic way to the blind person (for example through a Bluetooth headset). This way, the blind person gets his/her indoor route instructions from the system. 2 INDOOR NAVIGATION FOR VISUAL IMPAIRED AND BLIND PEOPLE 2.1 situation Imagine a world without barriers, where all people and particularly people with special needs can enjoy daily life without running into obstacles or problems which undermine their self-determination. This is a dream which could come true within the next years. In Austria the Federal Law on Equality of People with Disabilities (Bundes-Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz – BGStG [1]), which has been in force since the year 2006, is a positive factor towards improving the situation for the visually impaired and blind people. However, barriers related to roads, transportation and transport facilities built before January 2006 have time to neutralize these barriers until the 31 of December 2015. So barrier free public transport for people with special needs is still a dream and not yet a reality. Currently visually impaired and blind people travel with the help of a white cane, a dog or are escorted by a friend or mobility trainer. With this new law, all passengers and particularly people with special needs will have access to public transport and up-to-date traffic information in a much more simplified way than nowadays. A new individual (indoor) navigation system can raise accessibility to public transport for this group of people. Additionally, the communication between the navigational device and the respective means of public transportation (bus, tram, train and subway) as well as the static/dynamic information timetables should be aimed at increasing the feeling of safe travel. This way the visually impaired and blind people can be self-determined. At the moment different projects in Public transport and Navigation are using the RFID-technology for routing blind people. Example Projects are 1) Sesamonet, Italy [2] which uses passive RFID-tags and an RFID-reader built in the white cane for a route along the promenade at Lake Maggiore. 2) RouteOnline, the Netherlands [3] which uses active RFID-tags and a hand held reader to find a route at different stations. 3) BIGS, Korea [4] which uses a portable terminal unit and a smart floor (each tile of the floor has a passive RFID-tag). 4) Bus-ID, Germany, [5] uses the RFID-tag for sending public transport information towards a reader and a database. 5) RFID Information Grid [6] which uses the RFID-tag for indoor routing in the Campus. The RFID-tags are programmed with spatial coordinates and information to describe the surroundings. No centralized database or wireless infrastructure for communications is used. 6) Self- contained Sensor System [7] which places RFID readers inside the building. The user will carry his/her own RFID-tag with him/her to capture his/her position. Taking these examples into consideration it can be