Why is this project important?
The ability to travel independently is fundamental to accessing many services and opportunities, without which full participation in and contribution to society becomes impossible. In response to a nationwide survey by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), 40% of blind and partially-sighted people said that they are not able to make all the journeys they want or need to, and four in ten feel cut off from people and things around them. As well as social isolation, difficulties in travelling independently contribute to challenges in finding work, with only one in four blind and partially-sighted people of working age in employment.
Therefore, it is essential to develop novel technological solutions which can make independent travel a daily reality for blind and partially-sighted people and open the door to greater participation in social and work life. Of all modes of transport, walking is the vital “glue” that binds together longer journeys by other modes of transport, such as bus, train or taxi, and it also enables shorter journeys day-to-day that sustain active participation in the community.
Unfortunately, existing technologies do not address several key challenges identified by blind and partially-sighted people who are trying to travel independently on foot. For example in urban centres, both the location accuracy of GPS and orientation accuracy of electronic compasses are disrupted by buildings. This can lead to disorientation for the user and makes tasks such as finding entrances into buildings, which require pin-point accuracy, very challenging. Furthermore, GPS drains the battery fast and so cannot be depended upon for long journeys.
What are the aims of the project?
We aim to co-create a ground-breaking navigation device for making journeys on foot, designed from the start with the needs and first-hand experience of blind and partially-sighted people in mind. Based on preliminary research into the key challenges faced by blind and partially-sighted people navigating, we have identified the following goals for the novel device:
- Accuracy: The navigation device reliably gives the user guidance that is accurate to their current location.
- Dependability: The device has a long battery life, so that it continues to work throughout the day during extended journeys.
- Ease of Use: The device is intuitive and non-distracting to use, allowing the user to maintain an active sense of connection to the world and people around them, for example through conversation.
These goals will be regularly revised and refined throughout the project through collaboration between the partners and potential users.
Why is our approach novel and useful?
Our approach takes inspiration from cutting edge scientific research into navigation in animals to develop a novel navigation device that is accurate, dependable and simple to use. Unlike us, many animals do not use complex navigational representations such as maps, landmarks or waypoints to find their way. Instead, they remember the orientations of all the views that they experience when following a route. When they want to follow the same route again, they can find the correct direction to head simply by turning to find the orientation which looks most familiar.
This “action-based” strategy offers an elegant and efficient way to navigate with high directional accuracy. It reduces the three-dimensional complexity of the real world to a simple measurement of familiarity, meaning it would be well-suited as an intuitive, non-distracting signal for route guidance in a navigation device. The efficiency of this strategy reduces the need for intensive processing that drains the battery, allowing the development of a navigation device that can be relied upon for extended journeys.
Therefore in combination, this approach meets several key needs which are not met by existing navigation technologies. However, we see these benefits as complementary to those of existing navigational technologies used by blind and partially-sighted people, such as the white cane or GPS. We envision the navigation device as the fundamental part of a “navigational toolkit”, with guidance from the device supplemented as and when needed, for example by using GPS location-based services to access information about nearby shops and businesses. We believe that by co-creating this novel device with blind and partially-sighted people, we can make a device which can have the greatest impact on day-to-day quality of life and independence.
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