Paper Info
Title
Navigating visually impaired travelers in a large train station using smartphone and bluetooth low energy.
Abstract
People with visual impairments face challenges when navigating indoor environments, such as train stations and shopping malls. Prior approaches either require dedicated hardware that is expensive and bulky or may not be suitable for such complex spaces. This paper aims to propose a practical solution that enables blind travelers to navigate a complex train station independently using a smartphone without the need for any special hardware. Utilizing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology and a smartphone's built-in compass, we developed StaNavi -- a navigation system that provides turn-by-turn voice directions inside Tokyo Station, one of the world's busiest train stations, which has more than 400,000 passengers daily. StaNavi was iteratively co-designed with blind users to provide features tailored to their needs that include interfaces for one-handed use while walking with a cane and a route overview to provide a picture of the entire journey in advance. It also offers cues that help users orient themselves in convoluted paths or open spaces. A field test with eight blind users demonstrates that all users could reach given destinations in real-life scenarios, showing that our system was effective in a complex and highly crowded environment and has great potential for large-scale deployment.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1145/2851613.2851716
SAC
Field
DocType
Citations 
Visual impairment,Software deployment,Compass,Computer science,Navigation system,Public transport,Multimedia,Bluetooth Low Energy,Destinations
Conference
6
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.49
12
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jee-Eun Kim160.83
Masahiro Bessho2608.84
Shinsuke Kobayashi312017.43
Noboru Koshizuka422546.68
Ken Sakamura529176.46