Hey Ian, if you do connect with Dr. Gamboodiri, tell him that I find his
approaches fascinating, and ask him to please PLEASE! Figure out a way to use
Spatial Audio or some equivalent that supports MFI hearing aids? Please remind
him that some users of his Mabel system will be deafblind, and that the need is
even greater for this type of tech with those users, but that no one seems to
realize that Spatial Audio is a big component of indoor navigation systems and
are not supporting MFI?
And...
You lucky dog, you! *grin*
—Mark BurningHawk Baxter
Twitter: @MarkBurningHawk
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 27, 2024, at 12:47 PM, Keith Reedy <keithreedy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Glad to help when I can.
Keith Reedy
On Jan 26, 2024, at 10:28 PM, Ian Edwards <ianedwards42@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Very timely, thanks much. It just so happens I’m sitting *checks Google
Maps* 2.3 miles away from Lehigh University. I’ll have to give this
researcher a call, maybe I can encourage him to do a phase at the facility
I’m starting at.
Cheers,
Ian
On Jan 26, 2024, at 7:38 PM, Keith Reedy <keithreedy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
thought this mite be helpful to some who have these questions.
Keith Reedy
Begin forwarded message:
From: "David Goldfield" <david.goldfield@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Tech-VI] New technology for navigating the great indoors
Date: January 26, 2024 at 5:10:02 PM EST
To: List <tech-vi@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: tech-vi@xxxxxxxxx
Visually impaired Accessible technology - BingNews - Sunday, January 21,
2024 at 11:00 AM
New technology for navigating the great indoors
For some researchers, personal experience sparks innovation.
“Since childhood, I’ve had issues seeing in low light,” says Lehigh
University Professor Vinod Namboodiri. “And I always wondered about people
who are completely blind: How do they get around? So as an academic with a
background in computing, wireless communications, and networks, I knew I
had the skills and the personal connection that could help me solve a
problem faced by so many people with disabilities—how to confidently get
from point A to point B when inside unfamiliar spaces.”
Namboodiri, a faculty member in both the P.C. Rossin College of
Engineering and Applied Science and the College of Health, recently
received funding from the National Science Foundation’s Convergence
Accelerator program to advance from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of the program’s
Enhancing Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities track. The computer
scientist and his team—which includes partners such as Good Shepherd
Rehabilitation, the Smithsonian’s museums in Washington, D.C., and the
American Foundation for the Blind, among others—will use the three-year
grant to build a prototype of a personalized, scalable app, called MABLE
(Mapping for Accessible BuiLt Environments), that will allow people with a
range of impairments to get turn-by-turn instructions when navigating
indoor environments.
The award is part of a total investment of $30 million that the NSF is
spreading across six multidisciplinary research teams to develop systems,
technologies, and tools to enhance the quality of life and improve the
employment opportunities of those with disabilities.
Namboodiri’s app builds upon work he began as a faculty member at Wichita
State University after spending a sabbatical at Envision. The nonprofit,
which is based in Kansas and Texas, serves people who are blind or
visually impaired through employment, education, research, rehabilitation,
and outreach.
“While I was there, I learned about the different challenges these people
faced,” he says, “and it became clear that while Google Maps and Apple
Maps allowed them to find their way outdoors fairly easily, they really
struggled once they walked into a mall or into a store.”
Soon, however, he realized it wasn’t just blind or visually impaired
people who had a hard time navigating these environments.
“Those who use wheelchairs often have a tough time locating the most
accessible routes, like where the ramps or elevators are in a building,”
he says. “Similarly, older adults and those with cognitive impairments
might get from point A to point B, but then have difficulty finding their
way back to point A. It became clear that people with disabilities face a
lot of anxiety when they visit new spaces, and so the question became, How
can we use a computing and engineering perspective to solve some of these
challenges?”
Namboodiri plans to create a smartphone way-finding app that can be
personalized to the specific needs of the user. But he and his team must
first overcome two vexing problems: the absence of a universal positioning
system—like the satellites that power navigation apps—and a dearth of maps
for indoor spaces.
To address the former, Namboodiri deployed wireless devices called beacons
within a single academic building as part of what he calls a “low-fidelity
prototype” he developed while at Wichita State.
“We spread them around the building, and smartphones connected to them
through Bluetooth. So as you got closer to them, the phone knew where you
were, and in that way, it kind of mimicked the satellite system.”
Such beacons may be the answer going forward, he says, but his team is
working on alternative methods of orientation, such as using the phone’s
camera or video capabilities.
“We don’t want to marry ourselves to one approach because there may be
some building owners who don’t want to use beacons due to the need to add
them to existing built environments,” he says. “Camera-based approaches
are increasingly viable due to greater computing capabilities, but some
users do not want to use them due to extensive smartphone battery drain.
Coarser positioning schemes based on Wi-Fi and Inertial Motion Units may
be sufficient for some users, but are inadequate for those that need more
precise location and associated contextual information. So while this
project started with beacons, we’ll be pursuing a much broader range of
possibilities that allows building managers to choose what they want to
offer for their end-user base and users to voice their opinion on what
they prefer.”
The lack of comprehensive indoor maps poses a unique challenge. When floor
plans do exist for a given building, it’s rare that they contain the level
of detail that would make them useful to those with visual, mobility, or
cognitive impairments. Namboodiri and his team of collaborators plan to
design scalable, automated approaches to convert floor plans to maps and
then leverage crowdsourcing to enable users to contribute the information
that will make the plans relevant to a diverse range of needs. And they’ll
be available not only within the mobile app, but online as well, all in
accessible formats personalizable by a diverse set of users to their
specific needs.
“The app will allow independent way finding,” he says, “but say you’re
planning on going to a conference in a hotel. You’ll be able to use your
web browser to study the maps and plan out the best routes ahead of time,
so when you arrive, you’ll already know where you’re going, in a sense.”
He says the long-term vision is to provide a service in which the
appropriate tools, software, and algorithms are available for purchase
online for owners interested in making their buildings more accessible.
“So maybe there’s a lower cost service for owners who can do everything on
their own, and a specialist service they can hire for more complex
buildings,” says Namboodiri.
That future service could also become attractive to an even wider
audience, like tourists and firefighters. That’s because Vinod sees way
finding as a base layer of sorts—once you have the ability to know where
you are and to get routes within a building, the potential applications
are vast. Tourists traveling abroad could use the service inside transit
stations and get information on arrivals and departures in their own
language. Firefighters could navigate when they’re otherwise blinded by
smoke. And it could be used in situations requiring emergency evacuations
from a building when the typical exits are blocked.
“Once you have the core functionality of the map and the location, you can
add so much on top of that,” he says. “The ultimate goal is to make people
with disabilities—and anyone else—visit unknown spaces more confidently.”
It’s a goal that is especially meaningful to him. And it’s one that could
have profound ripple effects on society at large.
“Within the U.S., around 25 percent of the population identify as having
some kind of disability,” he says. “If we can make it less stressful and
easier for them to get around, not only will the quality of their lives
improve, but it could help increase their participation in the workforce.
And that would be a huge boost to the economy.”
Related Links
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of
news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for
the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=65affe056c244f599c6c493586f6c08a&url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.eurekalert.org%2fnews-releases%2f1031974&c=724463711531128728&mkt=en-us
David Goldfield,
Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist
If you need help using your assistive technology learn about my training
services by visiting
WWW.ScreenReaderTraining.com
Am Yisrael Chai
The Nation of Israel Lives!
JAWS Certified, 2022
NVDA Certified Expert
Subscribe to the Tech-VI announcement list to receive news, events and
information regarding the blindness assistive technology field.
Email: tech-vi+subscribe@xxxxxxxxx
www.DavidGoldfield.com
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