PFI-RP: Smart and Accessible Transportation Hub for Assistive Navigation and Facility Management

这个PFI项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于其最终目标是将一个大型交通枢纽转变为一个智能和可访问的枢纽（SAT-Hub），而基础设施的变化最小。由于美国有各种大型交通枢纽，市场机会是巨大的。该解决方案还可以扩展到其他公共设施的室内导航，如学校建筑、图书馆、办公楼、机场等。该项目将产生三个重要成果：运输机构管理设施的实时设施模型，最终用户的免费室内定位和导航应用程序，以及为研究人员和开发人员提供丰富的多式联运数据和工具。社会需求是巨大的，特别是对那些有很大需要的人，例如那些有视力障碍和自闭症谱系障碍的人，以及那些在找地方方面有困难的人，特别是那些不熟悉大都市地区的人，影响很大。仅在美国，就有660万人有视觉障碍，每45人中就有1人被诊断为自闭症谱系障碍。SAT-Hub将成为一个范例，扩大他们的流动范围，给他们更多的自由，让他们提高生活的丰富性和质量，并改善他们的就业机会。拟议的项目将现有的监控摄像头系统、安装的蓝牙信标、交通或其他公共设施的建筑信息模型与手机本地化应用程序的混合解决方案（使用信标、车载传感器、摄像头以及3D传感器）集成在一起。这些将与个性化用户界面相结合，为最终用户提供无缝服务，同时也为交通基础设施利益相关者提供有价值的用户信息和设施使用信息。我们的解决方案是一种系统工程方法来解决城市交通中的一个具有挑战性的问题，它集成了三个主要组成部分：多层实时设施建模工具、混合移动导航算法和多模式以人为中心的界面设计。技术创新在于将智能基础设施（土木工程）与无障碍服务（传感和计算）相结合。关键的技术挑战来自两个方面：在获取信息和数据（如监控数据和3D模型数据）的基础上，将系统与交通或其他设施的主要业务无缝集成，以及优化和个性化用户界面以满足各种用户需求。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this PFI project lies in its ultimate goal to transform a large transportation hub into a smart and accessible hub (SAT-Hub), with minimal infrastructure change. The market opportunity is tremendous as there are various large transportation hubs in the United States. The solution can also be extended to indoor navigation of other public facilities, such as school buildings, libraries, office buildings, and airports. The project will lead to three important outcomes: live facility models for facility management by transportation agencies, free indoor positioning and navigation apps for end users, and a rich set of multimodal transportation data and tools for researchers and developers. The societal need is significant, especially impactful for people in great need, such as those with visual impairments and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and those with challenges in finding places, particularly persons unfamiliar with metropolitan areas. In the U.S. alone, 6.6 million people have visual impairments, and 1 in 45 people have been diagnosed with ASD. The SAT-Hub will be an exemplar case to extend the reach of their mobility, give them more freedom, allow them to enhance the richness and quality of their lives, and improve their employment opportunities. The proposed project integrates an existing surveillance camera system, installed Bluetooth beacons, and a building information model of a transportation or other public facility, with a hybrid solution of a mobile phone localization app (using beacons, on-board sensors, and cameras along with 3D sensors). These will be incorporated with personalized user interfaces to provide a seamless service to the end users, while also providing valuable user information and facility use information to transportation infrastructure stakeholders. Our solution is a system-engineering approach to a challenging problem in urban transportation that integrates three major components: multilayer live facility modeling tools, hybrid mobile navigation algorithms, and multimodal human-centric interface designs. The technology innovation lies in the integration of smart infrastructure (civil engineering) with accessible services (sensing and computing). The key technological challenges come from two sides: the seamless integration of the system with the main operations of a transportation or other facility base on obtaining information and data (such as surveillance data and 3D model data), and the optimization and personalization of user interfaces to address various user needs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.