RTRI REPORT January 1999

Development of Guidance System for Visually Impaired Persons

Hiroshi MATSUBARA, Koichi GOTO, Shuichi MYOJO


  It is one of the most important issues for railway companies to create an easy-to-use public transport service for all kinds of passengers. We are developing a guidance system for visually impaired persons who feel inconvenience and danger at stations. This system consists of a portable information device, a cane carried by users and tag-inserted Braille blocks which are embedded along walkways. The data of the tag is read by a tag reader installed in the cane and transmitted by a radio wave to the portable information device. Then information on the location is provided vocally to the user via a speaker of the portable information device. When the user tell the information device where he/she wants to go, the device computes the best route to the destination and presents it to the user. This system realizes a conversational route guidance service for visually impaired persons.



Copyright (c) 1999 Railway Technical Research Institute