GPS/BLE Mobile Guidance for Reduced-Mobility Transit Travel
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Individuals with reduced mobility, particularly the visually impaired and those with hearing disabilities, face challenges in navigating public transportation systems, including train stations, buses, and other environments, due to lack of effective wayfinding assistance, such as unclear audio announcements, height differences, and difficulty in locating doors and platforms.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing a mobile device with GPS and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology to communicate with wireless transceivers in the environment, providing personalized audio and text guidance, and integrating with a Guiding-System-Cloud to offer route planning and real-time location tracking, ensuring accurate navigation through public transportation and other spaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If common vocal announcement systems are used in train stations, then information can be broadcast to passengers, but visually impaired and hearing disabled persons cannot effectively receive or interpret the navigation information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mobile device as an intermediary between the common vocal announcement system and the PRM. The mobile device receives vocal announcements, processes them, and converts them into accessible formats (text-to-speech, haptic feedback, or visual displays) that PRM can effectively perceive and use for navigation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of information presentation by converting vocal announcements into multiple accessible formats including text-to-speech output, haptic vibrations, and visual text displays on the mobile device screen, making navigation information accessible to visually impaired and hearing disabled persons.
2Measurement precision
If GPS and BLE technology are integrated into a mobile device, then precise location tracking and personalized guidance can be provided to PRM, but the device complexity and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile device performs multiple functions: it acts as a GPS receiver for location tracking, a BLE transceiver for communicating with environmental sensors, a processor for analyzing position data, and an output device for providing navigation guidance. By consolidating these functions into a single universal device, the patent avoids the complexity of multiple separate systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile device autonomously performs location tracking, processes navigation data, and provides guidance information without requiring external intervention. The device self-manages the integration of GPS and BLE technologies, reducing the need for complex external control systems.
3Ease of operation
If environmental sensors and speakers are distributed throughout the station, then personalized audio guidance can be provided to PRM, but the system complexity and infrastructure requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile device serves as an intermediary that receives data from distributed environmental sensors and coordinates with speakers to provide personalized audio guidance. Rather than requiring direct complex integration between all sensors and speakers, the mobile device mediates the information flow and simplifies the system architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adapts the guidance provided to each PRM based on their real-time location, movement direction, and personal preferences. The mobile device continuously updates navigation instructions as the user moves through the station, and the system adjusts which speakers are activated based on the user's current position, creating a dynamic rather than static guidance system.
4Ease of operation
If the system provides continuous navigation assistance to PRM, then independence and stress-free travel are enabled, but energy consumption and information overload may occur
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of providing continuous navigation assistance, the system uses periodic updates based on the user's movement and environmental context. The mobile device monitors when location changes occur or when the user approaches decision points, and only then provides navigation guidance, reducing energy consumption while maintaining travel independence.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides navigation information at appropriate intervals and only when necessary for the user's journey, rather than continuously. By providing partial information at key decision points rather than exhaustive continuous guidance, the system reduces energy consumption and prevents information overload while still enabling independent travel.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for guiding a Person with Reduced Mobility (PRM) via public transportation is disclosed. The system comprises a guiding-system cloud (GSC) and a mobile device (MD) that is associated with the Person with Reduced Mobility (PRM). The MD is able to communicate with the GSC in order to plan a plan of a journey from an origin location toward a desired location and wherein the plan comprises wayfinding signals that are adapted to a disability of the PRM.