Accessible Mobile Tourist Information System

Though vehicle navigations systems can help direct users all across the map, once out of the car, users can still get lost, regardless of whether they are sighted or blind. Two research institutions in Oldenburg Germany have developed a new system called AccesSights that can help all users to find city hotspots and points of interest (POI).

Today’s PDA navigation systems are not effective for all users and many are not user friendly for the blind and visually impaired. These users do not receive the same information as normally sighted users. AccesSights overcomes these barriers by supporting both user groups with the same information.

Researchers Palle Klante, Jens Krösche, Susanne Boll of the OFFIS Research Institute and the University of Oldenburg combined efforts to create the AccesSights system. The system enables blind users and sighted users to navigate on their own and also allows users to communicate with each other, since they receive the same information. The platform uses GSM, GPRS, WLAN and UMTS on a Niccimon platform together with theAIR3DSound framework and

The only system that relates to the AccesSights is the VisuAid Trekker. This Hewlett-Packard PDA is supported with navigation software and can include POI software for navigation in tourist areas. This system is exclusively for blind and visually impaired but shows that systems like AccesSights are possible.

Source: AccesSights - A Multimodal Location-AwareMobile Tourist Information SystemPalle (Download PDF)