Information Systems Div., Transport Systems Development Dept.
RTRI is now conducting research and development on various measures to enhance safety and increase serviceability of railway users. Especially, an experimental measure for the persons visually handicapped is now under development. Recently, various guiding systems for such a purpose have been developed. However, information provided by those existing systems is not sufficient and not necessarily appropriate to each user, mainly because, in such a system, information is conveyed through voice via a speaker installed in the ground or a portable radio carried by individual users. And generally, such a system requires vast investment in order to install facilities in the ground. The proposed system at RTRI utilizes the latest technology of data-carrier, mobile communication and portable computers. A data-carrier, installed in the ground, on the platform, in the wall, or in the pillar at stations, has coded information which indicates its location, or the kind of facility, and so on. This coded information is transferred to a user via a data-carrier reader which is installed on his waist or within his cane carried by visually handicapped persons. This information is interpreted by portable computer, such as PDA (personal digital assistants), and then that PDA generates an appropriate guiding message referring to the user's personal data inputed beforehand, such as destination of moving, or the state of his handicap, or the language he understands, etc. Finally this guiding message is conveyed to the person by voice via a portable speaker. Functionally this system has various merits compared with existing systems. Problems such as size, weight and cost of personal facility, or the reliability of data communication should be resolved. These problems are now under investigation at RTRI.
