GOING BEYOND THE VISION LOSS BOUNDARIES Michal Tvarožek, Martin Adam, Michal Barla, Peter Sivák, Mentor: Prof. Mária Bieliková

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Presentation outline  Motivation  Case studies  SPOT-IT system overview  Marketability / Deployment  Summary

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Motivation  Insufficient information accessibility  Information overwhelming  Demand for contextual information and context aware applications  Intelligent environments

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Target group: Visually impaired people  Substantial social impact Worldwide 161 million people suffer from significant visual disability 37 million people are totally blind  Total lack of information Sight provides 90% of information  Need for information Independence Peace of mind Quality of life

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Visually impaired people: Problems and issues  Dependency on the help of others Getting generic information Shopping Timetables  Asking “the darkness”  Dangers Obstacles undetectable with a cane Warning signs

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Case study I – Visiting a doctor  A blind person visits a hospital  She listens to office locations, numbers and doctor’s names  She does not slip on wet floors  She knows the locations of lifts, toilets, shops, wending machines, …

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Case study II – National park  A blind person visits a national park  He knows the locations of various sights and amenities  He listens to information guides automatically at the correct places  He receives information about souvenir shops

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Requirements / Prerequisites  Light, small and convenient client device  Low implementation costs  Low power needs, low latency  Ubiquitous operation using existing infrastructure  Association of information with real-world entities  Dynamic messages  Interface suitable both for visually impaired and sighted users

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology System overview  Contextual information Entities (objects / “ideas”) RFID tags Messages (information)  Users Visually impaired Sighted

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology What is an RFID tag?

System operation

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Messages  Message categories  Critical messages alert of danger  Message cache Lowers latency and power consumption Enables operation without internet connectivity  Dynamic message content

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Messages II  Contextual Information Description Language (CIDL) Validity Structured messages  Extensibility Support for different languages Links to multimedia/web content

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology RFID Name and RFID Tag service  RNS translates tag data to RTS server addresses Tag migration  RTS supplies messages RTS hosting  Central authority oversees RNS servers Abuse of critical messages Updates

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Personalization and customization  Operation modes  Message category priorities Too many tags nearby  Message filters Repeating of irrelevant messages Rogue messages – SPAM  Notifications  User interfaces

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology User interfaces

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Marketability / Deployment  Early adopters Local authorities, Blind associations Mobile operators  Advantages Low cost of RFID tags No in-place infrastructure required Extensibility to applications for sighted users Might also use existing RFID tags  What is/might be needed? Affordable PDAs / Smartphones Integrated RFID readers RFID tag dispensers RNS authority, RTS providers

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Summary  RFID tags associate information with real-world entities/objects  Relevant contextual information at the place you need it at the time you need it in the form you need  A higher quality of life for both the blind and the sighted

Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology GOING BEYOND THE VISION LOSS BOUNDARIES