Project Ways4all
Barrier-free mobility for all!
Explicitly – Navigation for visually impaired and blind people within the special requirements of public transportation!
The main goal of the project “ways4all” was to develop an indoor navigation system for the visually impaired and blind people. The project uses the tactile guidance system as backbone for the routing. Low frequency passive RFID-tags are built into this guidance system at strategic points. With the use of a foot-mounted RFID-reader the unique code of the RFID-tags are read and sent to a smart phone. Inside the smart phone the route is calculated and by means of short messages the visually impaired and blind person is routed through the building. One of the great advantages of this system is that no absolute coordinates and building plans are necessary. The relation and distance between the tags are stored in a general database on a server. Before travelling or when a building is entered, this database is downloaded to the smart phone. Thus, the costs of the system are low and easily accessible.
The main goal of the project “ways4all” was to develop an indoor navigation system for the visually impaired and blind people. The project uses the tactile guidance system as backbone for the routing. Low frequency passive RFID-tags are built into this guidance system at strategic points. With the use of a foot-mounted RFID-reader the unique code of the RFID-tags are read and sent to a smart phone. Inside the smart phone the route is calculated and by means of short messages the visually impaired and blind person is routed through the building. One of the great advantages of this system is that no absolute coordinates and building plans are necessary. The relation and distance between the tags are stored in a general database on a server. Before travelling or when a building is entered, this database is downloaded to the smart phone. Thus, the costs of the system are low and easily accessible.
Ways4all is a research project of eight different organisations and is led by the degree program “Energy, Transport and Environmental Management / Energy and Transport Management” of the FH JOANNEUM GmbH, in Kapfenberg.
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) within the program “IV2Splus”, programme line “ways2go”.
Project description:
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 could decrease their self-determination. This is a dream which could become true within the next years. The Federal Law on Equality of People with Disabilities (Bundes-Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz – BGStG) which has been in force since the year 2006 is a positive factor towards improving the situation of visually impaired and blind people. However barriers related to roads, transportation and transport facilities which were built before January 2006 have time up to 31 December 2015 to be neutralized. 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 their white cane, a lead dog or the escort of a friend or mobility trainer. But with this new law, all passengers and particularly people with special needs will be able to have access to public transport and the necessary up-to-date traffic information in a much more simplified way then nowadays. A new individual (indoor) navigation system can raise the accessibility to public transport for this group of people. Additionally, communication between the navigational device and the respective means of public transportation (bus, tram, train and subway) as well as to the static/dynamic information timetables should be aimed at increasing the feeling of safe travel, so that the visually impaired and blind people can be self-determined.
Outcome:
This project shows that with the help of an individual navigation system, based on a new routing method - the so-called “Gerwei-method” which generate the direction information, combined with a routing algorithm and passive RFID-Tags – different groups of people (with a focus on the visually impaired and blind people) can find their way to and from public transport stops and among the different means of transportation much easier.
Existing isolated systems within the Austrian public transport (Austrian Federal Railways and Vienna Transport Authority) are used as the basis for the routing system to develop a comprehensive architecture of coordinated navigation system for both long and short distance travel at the Main Railway Station in Vienna. So with this new indoor routing system people with special needs can actively use public transport for travelling.
Existing isolated systems are the tactile guidance system, but also systems like acoustic guidance “POPTIS”, one way communication with the public transportation mode “QUO VADIS”, electronic passenger information or barrier-free internet pages.
One way communication with the vehicle is developed by the Wiener Linien and Transelektronik in the project “QUO VADIS”, which was funded by the the Technology Agency of the City of Vienna (ZIT) in the program call “Vienna enabled” in 2007. In this project people with special needs can send a signal towards the transportation mode as entry request or to be informed about the line number and its destination
The project POPTIS stands for “Pre-On-Post-Trip-Information-System” and is a navigation system for visually impaired and blind passengers: The system was developed by the „Wiener Linien“, the „Hilfsgemeinschaft der Blinden und Sehschwachen Österreichs“, the „Österreichischen Blindenwohlfahrt“ and the “Österreichischer Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverband (ÖBSV), Landesgruppe Wien, NÖ u. Bgld” and funded by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT).
With the help of the acoustic "Pre-On-post-trip" information, each route can be planned, read and learned pretrtip at home by each user. All routes inside the Vienna underground are recorded in a database.
On-trip the user can obtain missing information by their mobile phone and read routing descriptions as often as needed. "Post-trip" can each completed route be stored on acomputer / mobile phone so from then on it is always available as "pre" and "on-trip" route.
On-trip the user can obtain missing information by their mobile phone and read routing descriptions as often as needed. "Post-trip" can each completed route be stored on acomputer / mobile phone so from then on it is always available as "pre" and "on-trip" route.
All of these isolated systems are integrated into a completely new routing system “ways4all” by expanding the system with reference points for a navigational device, which was one of the main targets within the context to complete the system architecture. The system should function on existing end devices such as mobile phones or PDAs, which ideally should be equipped with a GPS for outdoor navigation. These end devices have to be compatible with the appropriate existing technology such as Bluetooth, RFID, WLAN and UMTS for indoor navigation.
The system developed should enable non-stop navigation within the outdoor as well as the indoor areas as between both of them. By including the projects "QUO VADIS" and "POPTIS projects and/or their functionalities within this project, the quality of life of those with special needs will be vitally improved and they will be able to realize determining their own way of travelling at the Main Railway Station in Vienna in 2014.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGFCDoj_L5E
Project start: December 2008
Project end: march 2011
Program IV2Splus:
1st Call, programme line “ways2go” (2008)
Project management:
FH JOANNEUM Kapfenberg
Project manager DI Martijn Kiers
Deputy project manager DI (FH) Werner Bischof
Project partners:
Hilfsgemeinschaft der Blinden und Sehschwachen Österreichs
Gerhard Bruckner
Österreichischer Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverband (ÖBSV)
Landesgruppe Wien, NÖ u. Bgld.
Wolfgang Kremser
Wiener Linien GmbH & Co KG
Project manager DI Martijn Kiers
Deputy project manager DI (FH) Werner Bischof
Project partners:
Hilfsgemeinschaft der Blinden und Sehschwachen Österreichs
Gerhard Bruckner
Österreichischer Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverband (ÖBSV)
Landesgruppe Wien, NÖ u. Bgld.
Wolfgang Kremser
Wiener Linien GmbH & Co KG
Ing Roland Krpata
Österreichische Blindenwohlfahrt
Österreichische Blindenwohlfahrt
Mag Konrad Widmann
Österreichische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Rehabilitation (ÖAR)
Ing. Maria Rosina Grundner
Transelektronic Messgeräte GmbH
Ing. Werner Friedrich
ÖBB Infrastruktur AG
DI. Wolfgang Skowronek
Österreichische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Rehabilitation (ÖAR)
Ing. Maria Rosina Grundner
Transelektronic Messgeräte GmbH
Ing. Werner Friedrich
ÖBB Infrastruktur AG
DI. Wolfgang Skowronek