http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17594&ch=infotech
Monday, October 09, 2006 Researchers search for better way to help people navigate By Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) -- Satellite-based navigation gadgets can guide motorists from high above, saving bumbling drivers countless hours and extra trips to the gas station. But directing people on a much smaller scale -- such as inside an office -- is a much greater challenge. Locator equipment based on Global Positioning System satellites is accurate to about 10 feet (3 meters)-- fine for drivers searching for the next right turn but not for pedestrians seeking a front door. And the range of GPS is limited indoors, and it can't on its own differentiate between a path and a wall. Georgia Institute of Technology researchers are trying to pick up where GPS leaves off. Its System for Wearable Audio Navigation, or SWAN, consists of a wearable computer connected to a headband packed with sensors that help sight-impaired users know where they are and how to get where they're going. Besides a pendant-sized wireless GPS tracker, there are light sensors and thermometers that help distinguish between indoors and outdoors. Cameras gauge how far away objects and obstacles are. A compass establishes direction. And an inertia detector tracks the roll, pitch and yaw of the user's head. All the data are crunched by a computer in a backpack, which relays high-pitch sonar-like signals that direct users to their destinations. It also works with a database of maps and floor plans to help pinpoint each sidewalk, door, hall and stairwell. Bruce Walker, an assistant psychology professor who helped develop the system, said in a few years it could be used to help guide blind people, first-responders to emergencies or soldiers through unknown territory. ''It's going to take time,'' Walker said. ''But getting floor plans for buildings is possible. We're trying to show that given a map, we can show the blind how to get places.'' Like a sonar device, the SWAN system sends out audible blips that quicken as users move closer to a preprogrammed target and slow as they get farther away. The sound of a hinge opening plays as it passes by a door, and cues can signal bathrooms, restaurants, stores, and other attractions. The sounds are sent through bone-conducting headphones, specialized devices that are worn behind the ears to appease users reluctant to have their ears covered. ''This is not intended to replace a guide dog or a white cane,'' Walker said. ''This just supplements it.'' --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TELECOM-CITIES Current searchable archives (Feb. 1, 2006 to present) at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Old searchble archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
