PhoneAbility
Sharing - Past, Present and Proposed Projects in Sweden
Dr. Jan-Ingvar Lindström
DR JAN-INGVAR LINDSTROM: Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to thank the organisers for inviting me to this conference, which is of great interest to me. I would like to talk a little about what we are doing in Sweden these days when it comes to navigation for people with disabilities. The title was phrased as "Past, Present and Proposed Projects in Sweden". This was a project carried through by the Royal Institute of Technology in cooperation with the Swedish Handicap Institute.
The background of what I am going to talk about is that I was asked by the Post and Telecom Agency in Sweden to make a study of what has been available in Sweden in terms of navigation facilities for people with disabilities, what the current situation was and what might be possible to do within the next few years in order to start some activities for people with disabilities in this area.
The objective of what I was going to do was then to analyse the needs and possibilities of disabled people for giving them access to an outdoor environment, mobility so they can move around independently and feel safe, and then to identify what was going on and perhaps was planned in this area. That was basically focused upon Swedish activities but, of course, also, we wanted to know what was going on in other countries. If that came out successfully, it was proposed to suggest one or two or perhaps three pilot projects in Sweden later this year.
I tried to carry through a review of these possible ongoing activities and interview all organisations who had some interest in this area. Of course, the representatives of the handicap movement, governmental bodies, telecom operators, companies, private companies providing software and hardware, and research institutes. I tried to do that in co-operation with possible actors planning navigation projects as well.
We started by saying that it concerns navigation and alarming, and giving information about the position, but after some time we came to the conclusion that it was a bit more complicated than that. You need to know the position of a person in terms of some kind of intelligent information co-ordinator, or some other things. It's important for the person to know in what direction he or she standing, because that's orientation, and then, of course, to be able to navigate from the position the person stands to the goal he or she is aiming at.
But it's not only that because it turned out that people would like to have some communication possibility, to be able to call somebody if one loses the track or needs help also. As the last possibility, also, to be localised if possible. If one gets lost and needs help, some other person in some other place perhaps should be able to localise the person in question. I will come back to that later.
We found out that there were different categories of systems, basically active systems and passive systems, to be considered. The active systems are, in its most simple form, systems that could be used independently by the user by using a device of some sort, reading a screen, knowing where one is, for example. As the second alternative, the interactive ones, I said one also could have a possibility to call a centre to get help with orientation, to interact with a human being to help get oneself on the track again. On the other hand, there are passive systems that should be initiated by other people. I don't want to go very much into that. I am basically talking about the active systems.
We had to look at the technology and we had to talk with people who are supposed to use the technology. We have already had an excellent lecture this morning by Professor Jackson informing us about what's available today in terms of the satellite navigation.
Currently we can rely on the Global Positioning System, the American system, perhaps supported by what's called AGPS (Assisted GPS) or DGPS, which improves the accuracy. As mentioned, also, we are looking forward to the European system with the Galileo system. It's not available yet so we have to trust the GPS for the moment.
Satellite navigation we have talked about already, and the consumer or user is supposed to have a little hand-held device. I guess that all of you are more or less familiar with the systems available already in terms of a PDA or something connected with the GPS navigation device, either connected directly to the PDA or some loose device we can plug in some other place. It is basically used for the car, for navigation in the streets.
As it was said from the beginning that we would like to have the communication facility, we had to look at mobile telephone systems as well. The GSM and 3G, which was mentioned already here today, such telephones have been used as a matter of fact in early European projects for helping people navigate. In the Mobik project the telephone developer Benefon was involved.
Today we have the possibility to improve the communication by sending pictures if we utilise the 3G system. In addition to that, we have also heard about the RFID, Bluetooth or WLAN possibilities. These are not satellite based, but something one has to rely upon in the close environment, preferably indoors, which we consider as important additional features to a GPS system, so that people can move around even in indoor environments.
Of course, if we rely on whatever system it is, we need servers for databases. For example, servers for storing and providing map information. If we consider the user, he or she is supposed to have a GPS navigator, a mobile telephone and/or a PDA, probably a compass function, to solve the problem of orientation to know in which direction one is standing, and also to have facilities for receiving RFID, Bluetooth information or wireless LAN information.
Of course, many of the users are supposed to make use of special interfaces. Perhaps, for example, a blind person who does not have the possibility to read the screen needs speech synthesis. Some people need voice control or speech control for the device, and in some cases even some kind of braille displays to get hold of information.
In the surroundings, there is also a demand for providing information in the RFID, Bluetooth facilities or wireless LAN transmitters. If we consider a service centre, there must be some kind of screen terminals also.
In addition to that, of course, a lot of software, map databases, for example. It's important to underline that we need digital map information for pedestrians for sidewalks. So, in other words, the ordinary maps available today which we can buy for our navigation devices also are not useful for people who need to move around in the street.
I mention man-machine interfaces, and in a possible service centre it's not only the communication facilities that are needed. We also can foresee that one needs records of personal information in a database so that, when somebody calls a service centre, the person who serves at the service centre knows a little about the consumer in order to help him or her best.
This is just an illustration of a section of a map on a GPS navigator.
It underlines the point that maps available today are intended for traffic, but the pedestrian must know, for example, not only where the streets are, but also that there are stairs between the lower level and the upper level of those streets, so he or she can operate or walk from one level to another, which is not the case in a map for cars. You don't have to know that.
This is a picture of a set-up where you have the hand-held device, the mobile telephone in this case, with picture transmission facilities which can send information to a service centre, where a map of the environment is available.
Based on information from the satellite and the mobile telephone, the person's position can be identified here on the screen, and a person at the service centre can give information to the user to help him or her the best way.
We talked with a number of representatives from the handicap movements and the basic experience from these discussions was that they said, "We would like to be able to move around safely and independently on footpaths and sidewalks out of doors. We will be able to communicate and send alarms. We would like to add points of interest in the database, specific information not available on the map, so we can get hold of that whenever we need it. Also, in a way, something trivial, but on the other hand very important; to really get access to these devices."
One thing is that we can develop or make use of existing technology, compose it in an interesting way, but it must be financially feasible, have an organisation where people can get these kind of devices, and also that they are compatible, at least within the country and hopefully within Europe, so that whenever you go to another city or perhaps another country you may be able to use the same kind of equipment.
I don't want to go into the details here with the interviews. I would like to mention that there are handouts available after this lecture, so you can pick them up and read more in detail what I have written and the conclusions that we have come to.
Visually impaired persons were interviewed. We talked with people who were deaf and we had to distinguish them with pre-lingual deafness and post-lingual deafness. People who are pre-lingually deaf who like to use sign language; it is an important matter to make sure that the devices can be used for sign language transmission between the service centre and the user.
To some extent, the same with deafblind people. Most deafblind people in Sweden at least have either some kind of residual vision or some kind of residual hearing, so one has to take that into consideration when designing the device and the system.
People who are hard of hearing have said to us that navigation devices are not so important to them, not more than to other people in general, but in case they get this kind of device, they would like to have text communication and good sound quality, and things like that.
Mobility impaired people were very interested in these kind of devices, especially if you are in a wheelchair and don't know about the surroundings or the sidewalk ahead of you. If you can get that information before you start, it would be fine to get that information in some kind of navigation device.
There is a group which I have called people with cognitive impairments. I don't know if you all agree to this term, but under that concept I have covered people with mental disabilities, people with dyslexia, people with psychiatric problems, people who suffer from dementia in a rather mild form, people who have had a stroke, autistic people, et cetera.
These groups are much more difficult to satisfy with devices of a rather standardised sort. I understand from interviews I had with their representatives that they had very specific and very individual demands, so I understand that when we come to provide these groups with navigation devices, we have to do it on a very individual level.
So, that was the situation today when we interviewed people who were disabled and talked with authorities and others in Swedish society. Then it became clear that we have had as a matter of fact two trials in Sweden, in earlier days, with the same basic aim as we are looking forward to now.
One was as early as in 1993. It was carried through by a research institute called Certec. You may have heard about it. Already in 1993, they made a pre-study of the possibility to use the then technology to support young people who were mentally retarded. They were provided with a navigator, a mobile telephone at that time, and a video camera. There were no mobiles with picture communication at that time, so they had to use a separate video camera and a communication link, and the whole thing had to be processed and administered by an Apple computer.
Basically, it was the same kind of functionality as we are looking for now, namely, that these people could move around. They could not, as I understand, make very much use of the display in the PDA, but they could call a centre and send a picture from the environment where they were, or be localised on a map in the centre, and by talking with them the person in the service centre could help them to find their way if they had lost it.
There were other applications as well, for example, when they were in a supermarket and didn't know what to choose. They could send a picture of what they saw to the service centre and ask, "Is this toothpaste or shoe cream? What is it?" They could get help. Also, perhaps helping them in a vocational situation with instructions. The problem was that the technology was premature. You couldn't walk around and expect people to use devices of this sort on a regular basis.
Another project ten years later was one aimed at helping blind people moving around. It was called Framsyn, and that is rather like the Mobik project, where equipment was developed with a GPS antenna. That was a pure research project to find out if a blind person could be guided in an environment with such precision or so accurately that they didn't even lose the track of the pavement. I think they were using DGPS in order to achieve that, and I understand that it was a bit confusing for them because they needed very frequent information, "A little more to the right, a little more to the left, straight ahead, stop." If you see the results of the tracks, they move around like a zig-zag pattern, which is not very practical either!
Anyway, it was, in a way, an interesting experiment being done, and it was initiated by the Swedish Road Administration. They are eager to help people with disabilities not only to move around, but also be able to use public communication, public transport, and in doing so you need to help people to go from their home, for example, to a bus stop also. That was the main intention with it.
So, these two projects were in the past. Today we have identified only one navigation device available in Sweden that is intended for people who are visually impaired. That is the Canadian or North American Trekker system. This is commercially available and consists of PDA, a navigation device on the shoulder, and there is a little loudspeaker also in the vicinity. I guess most of you know about this device.
When the person moves around, he gets information from the navigation device and the processor in the loudspeaker about the name of the street. Unfortunately, it is not very accurate. I have tried it myself and it can make rather big mistakes! I think there is a deviation of about 20 metres plus-minus, and they are using maps for motorists, so it's not intended precisely for sidewalks, but that is what we have.
We believe that what we need in projects coming is some kind of device for the user. I just used the symbol here of the Benefon device, but it must be a modern kind of telephone with camera function, including a navigator, either included or in a separate case, using the GPS satellite, perhaps with the help of AGPS, but I don't think so. One has to rely upon the direct signal, with the possibilities to receive the information via RFID, Bluetooth and wireless LAN to provide people with information when they move indoors.
We need maps in terms of databases. There are commercially available maps, digital maps. We have one in Sweden, the National Road Database. Based upon that people are developing special maps for pedestrians. Via a system of software and the surface interface, one can download the maps to the navigator. It's important to be able to do that rather often so that one can avoid obstacles that appear suddenly. There must also be a possibility to go from the mobile telephone down to the database and put in information in terms of points of interest.
Also very important is the establishment of some kind of service centre whereby one can either have a communication to the service centre, talking about matters, and in cases of urgency also send an alarm to get access to an ambulance or whatever it might be. I made this study last year and in March we have carried through these interviews with relevant user groups. We have looked at planning of projects in Sweden.
We found that most of the projects people are planning now were focused upon people with visual disabilities and cognitive impairments. Fortunately some of the telecom operators have shown an interest in these activities and these aims we have. We know that basically all the components are available in terms of the satellite system, mobile telephones, databases, but we have no complete system available and the maps are vastly lacking, or just on the point of being developed.
We have found also that there are some activities going on in Europe. Ask-It is one of these projects and MAP is another. People in the US recently have formed a network to discuss possibilities for people who are visually impaired to navigate, and we have heard a little about some activities going on in Japan as well.
What will happen now is that the PTS administration will be involved in helping - or should I say interfering - with possibly three evaluating pilot projects in Sweden. There is one in Stockholm, one will probably start in Gothenburg, and one in Malmo. The one in Stockholm will probably be focused, to start with at least, on people with visual disabilities. The one in Gothenburg will focus on people with cognitive impairments the one in Malmo has not been decided yet as to the group we are aiming at.
Much more detail of what we have found is available in a report which has been written. It has just been translated and will be available on the home page of the Post and Telecom Agency, www.PTS.se around 15th May, so that means next week obviously.
Again, there are handouts available, so in case you would like to study them and come back to me, I will be here for the rest of the day. I would be happy to answer any of your questions, and that's the case also for the time right now, if we have a minute or two to spare. Thank you very much.
APPLAUSE
NEW SPEAKER: Have you done any research into short-term information like roadworks, building works, any hazards, either dangerous or obstructional?
DR LINDSTROM: I see your question, it is an important one. First of all, I should say I haven't done any research, but I have looked at what is available. Yes and no. Systems available today do not provide for this kind of facility, but I am sure that that will be the demand by the PTS if they are going to put money into these projects I mentioned. They will require this kind of facility; either streaming information or information at certain intervals can be achieved, so you know about these obstacles or facilities.
I didn't talk much about that. Blind people have said that they would like to have not only the possibility to inform about things they have experienced themselves for their own system, but put it into the database so that it could be available to everybody. That makes sense, in a way, but on the other hand it's a bit risky also! If you think you have come across an obstacle, or something which is not there or you haven't noticed, people may get wrong information. But it is important to be able to do that; either that there is some authority to do it, or that an individual can do it as well.
JOHN GILL: Thank you, Jan-Ingvar.
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