<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/app-helping-visually-impaired-navigate-transit-systems/>
"The decal of brightly colored blocks on a black background looks like
something straight out of the classic arcade game Space Invaders. But the goal
of these codes isn’t to zap aliens — it’s to help people who are blind or have
low vision find their bus or train stop.
As anyone who has ever boarded the bus going the wrong way can attest,
wayfinding can be challenging for anyone, but people who have sight loss face
special challenges.
NaviLens, a tech company based in Murcia, Spain, has developed an app that uses
codes posted at bus stops or in train stations to provide real-time navigation
via audio and haptic (vibration) cues, directing the user from the elevator in
a train station, for example, to a nearby bus stop.
“Despite it being not a huge percentage of our ridership, it’s very important
to make sure that we provide accessibility for people experiencing partial or
full sight loss,” says Thor Diakow, spokesperson for Metro Vancouver’s transit
authority TransLink, which tested the app last year.
To use NaviLens as a rider, you first download the app to your phone. There are
two versions:
NaviLens for people who are blind or have low vision, and
NaviLens Go for general wayfinding. When you open the app,
NaviLens uses
your phone’s camera to detect and read codes in the environment, reading off
bus stop information and providing real-time guidance on how close you are to
the stop, for example. Anyone can test out the app by requesting codes to
download and print out.
The app detects codes without using GPS or requiring access to Wi-Fi or
Bluetooth. NaviLens reports that codes can be read almost instantaneously and
at a great distance, making it ideal for wayfinding."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
