[ktvt] Fw: [acb-l] scientists to study rfid system massachusetts

"Thao Vy" <missyguide@xxxxxxxxxxx> · Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:49:53 -0500

From: joe harcz Comcast 
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 4:04 PM
To: blind democracy List 
Cc: acb-l@xxxxxxx 
Subject: [acb-l] scientists to study rfid system massachusetts

Scientists design system using RFID devices to guide blind visitors inside 
unfamiliar buildings

December 16, 2010

An electronic system developed by Aura Ganz, professor of electrical and 
computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, allows visually

impaired people to safely navigate unfamiliar buildings using a three-ounce 
electronic device and a Bluetooth headphone.

The system, called PERCEPT, uses

Radio Frequency Identification

(RFID) tags placed throughout a building as audio landmarks. When a visually 
impaired person tunes into these electronic signposts with an RFID

reading device,

the system provides

verbal instructions

through the headphones. Ganz heads a research team working on the project 
through a three-year, $380,000 grant from the National Institutes of 
Health/National

Eye Institute.

Unfamiliar buildings pose a huge challenge for blind and visually-impaired 
people. Current training programs to help them, including at UMass Amherst, 
require

memorizing a large amount of information for many buildings each semester, and 
this can lead to confusing and frustrating situations.

Ganz is trying to deal directly with the problems associated with vision 
impaired people and their ability to get around. She has a pilot project in the

works. "We do have a basic prototype of the PERCEPT system already built," Ganz 
says. "It will be installed by June of 2011 in the Knowles Engineering

Building on the UMass campus, where human testing will begin this summer."

At any entrance of Knowles, the visually impaired person will be able to get 
directions to every room in the building at a kiosk where the PERCEPT system

will orient them with audio instructions. The kiosk has an outline of the 
building layout represented using raised and Braille alphabet. Using the kiosk,

you enter a desired floor, room number or another destination, such as a 
restroom or elevator, to get simple directions spoken into the headset. As the

user follows those directions, the hand-held PERCEPT device can scan the RFID 
tags that serve as signposts along the way, and further directions are relayed

to the headset.

The project has been conducted with suggestions from Carole Wilson, the 
certified orientation and mobility specialist from the Massachusetts Commission

for the Blind, located in Springfield. She is also helping Ganz by recruiting 
20 visually impaired subjects from around western Massachusetts to test the

PERCEPT system in the Knowles building. These are people unfamiliar with the 
UMass Amherst campus.

It’s important that the test subjects have no prior knowledge of the building 
layout, Ganz says. "This system was created to be deployed in any building,

and it’s geared toward visually impaired visitors who have never been there 
before. PERCEPT should work for

visually impaired people

entering any building for the first time. Our goal is to produce this 
technology for public buildings everywhere."

Other members of the PERCEPT research team are Russ Tessier, professor of 
electrical and computer engineering, who is developing the miniaturized hardware

for the RFID reading device, and Elaine Puleo, research associate professor 
from the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, who is working on the

experimental design.

Provided by University of Massachusetts Amherst (

http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-scientists-rfid-devices-visitors-unfamiliar.html

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[ktvt] Fw: [acb-l] scientists to study rfid system massachusetts

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