1. ARGUS “Assisting peRsonal GUidance System for people with visual impairment” ION GNSS+ 2013 AuthorJürgen Seybold CompanyTeleConsult Austria Session F4: New Products and Commercial Services Date19 September 2013

2. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 2 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 People with visual impairments have striking needs for trustful navigation systems! Use of satellite-positioning and navigation technologies available Implemented in innovative personal navigation devices

3. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 3 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Content ARGUS consortium Motivation Objectives ARGUS system -Binaural guidance -User terminal -Web services Preliminary tests Conclusion and outlook

4. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 4 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 ARGUS consortium EU initiative:FP7-ICT-2011-7 Duration:30 months Start date:01.10.2011 End date:30.03.2014 www.projectargus.eu

5. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 5 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Motivation Limitations of existing products and solutions based on GNSS -Not meeting all needs of people with visual impairments -Failing because of lacking accuracy and integrity -Not providing suitable and efficient MMI adjusted to user segment oGraphical displays or verbal output oVerbal instructions could interfere with external sounds -Relying on costly infrastructure

6. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 6 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Objectives Developing a personal navigation solution -to guide people along a pre-defined track -the integration of GNSS and acoustic-binaural technologies “Track navigation” instead of classical “waypoint or route navigation” Integration of advanced user interfaces (i.e., acoustic and haptic signals) Minimal interference on the user’s perception and operation

7. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 7 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 ARGUS system Mobile device (user terminal) -Guiding users with acoustic-binaural signals along a secure, pre-defined track -Position determination by satellite-based positioning -Computation of protection levels and reporting alerts to user Web services -Download of pre-defined tracks -Sharing information with other ARGUS users

8. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 8 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Binaural guidance Sounds produced by stereo headphones Binaural sounds create illusion that sounds come from specific directions and distances Guiding people giving a sense of 3D navigation Creating another reality layer corresponding to direction that user has to follow

9. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 9 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 User terminal Result of interview sessions with final users -They do not want another device but use their smartphone instead! Current smartphones do not support position accuracy and integrity required in ARGUS -Separate positioning unit as black box without special user interface -Positioning unit provides information such as ohigh accuracy position, oheading and ovelocity -Supplying precision needed by ARGUS solution Binaural guidance Global Navigation Satellite System Positioning Unit Smartphone (iOS, Android & others)

10. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 10 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Positioning unit ARGUS needs reliable information about user’s position and orientation Determination ensured by coupling GNSS and IMU measurements -Fusion of measurements by means of Kalman filtering GNSS observations are corrected -Augmentation and correction server access EGNOS information through EDAS Enhancement of -accuracy, -availability and -integrity

11. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 11 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Kalman filtering Fusion of GNSS and inertial observations through tightly coupled approach by use of an IEKF (Iterated Extended Kalman Filter) Availability of user’s position as well as user’s heading is improved  key point for guidance of people with visual impairments to pre-defined destinations

12. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 12 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Headphones Selection of headphones -Main objective: non-disturbance of hearing ambient sounds AuidoboneVibe BS NVE

13. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 13 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Web services (1/2) Route calculation Two options to generate route from origin to destination -Selecting pre-recorded tracks oNatural routes available in multilayer cartography oPreviously generated routes by other ARGUS users -Routing algorithm calculates best path to reach destination from origin point oOptimal route taking into account restrictions or preferences oParticular dangerous or conflicting points as well as specially well-signed points considered when calculating the route o  Routes are adapted to special restrictions of people with visual impairments

14. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 14 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Web services (2/2) GEOCorridor® function -Routes can be supplied with a surrounding safety zone -Alarm is generated if the user leaves safety zone Social network -Users can include feedback and experiences while using ARGUS -Personalized annotations become part of multilayered data -Route calculation algorithm can consider it in further path generations

15. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 15 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Preliminary tests Preliminary proof of concept conducted in Paderborn (Germany) with preliminary functional prototype -Test technical feasibility of ARGUS main concept: connect tracks with GNSS real-time location and guidance with 3D sounds -Four expert users with different visual impairments participated -All users successfully accomplished assigned navigation tasks with low deviations from control points -Only five minutes training required to obtain good performance

16. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 16 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Heading reaction vs. heading instructions Illustration shows comparison of audio played during tests and individual compass heading measurements -Powerful overview of the performance of the system and how the user reacts to each order Result -Good “order following” -User reacts correctly to orders -User processes direction of the sound correctly and therefore user has no problem following the track

17. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 17 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Heading reaction vs. heading instructions Zoom view in 2 nd user test where late user reaction can be derived -Arrows above white line show direction of played sound to guide the user -User takes a long time to change walking direction -Although system is trying to get user back to the ideal track user keeps deviating due to his late reaction -  ARGUS system should increase the sound rate to warn the user and to encourage him to change the walking direction

18. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 18 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Conclusions and outlook Technical challenges of the ARGUS system -Overall development of a guidance system which enables users to follow a pre-defined track autonomously by acoustic-binaural signals -Fusion of GNSS and IMU measurements by tailored Kalman filter Preliminary tests showed that navigation itself was very easy to follow and precise ARGUS system significantly reduces mobility training of people with visual impairments  they can walk unknown routes alone, even for first time Currently, the ARGUS partners implementing updated prototype User tests will be performed with wider sample of users this year

19. ARGUS: Assisting Personal Guidance System for People with Visual Impairment Page 19 ARGUS @ ION GNSS+ 2013, TeleConsult Austria, 19 September 2013 Thanks for your attention! ION GNSS+ 2013 AuthorJürgen Seybold juergen.seybold@tca.at CompanyTeleConsult Austria Rettenbacher Straße 22 8044 Graz, Austria www.projectargus.eu