Development of a digital self-powered wayfinding beacon to support people with visual impairment and reduced mobility with indoor navigation

Lightricity的目标是开发一种光动力寻路信标产品，使视觉和行动不便的人在室内导航系统中既可行又经济可行。我们将把我们的专利，高效，室内光伏（光伏）技术和新颖的电源管理架构应用于高度小型化的无电池寻路信标设备。这些免维护设备将被设计部署在灯具配件上，以确保有足够的电力用于快速信标和额外的传感器，以提供所需的位置精度和其他信息，从而实现视障人士的音频引导和智能路由，帮助视障人士和行动不便人士通过最容易到达的路线独立导航并避开障碍物。我们的解决方案将解决当前寻路解决方案的局限性，这些局限性阻碍了物联网导航解决方案提供商提供包容性服务。通常，他们在医院、交通枢纽、购物中心、办公室和其他公共建筑等大型建筑物中使用电池供电的信标进行室内导航/寻路解决方案。数百到数千个这样的设备被放置在建筑物的固定位置，直接与客户的手机通信，帮助他们在基于应用程序的建筑物地图上导航路线。由于每6-12个月必须更换电池以保持所需的信标频率和系统精度，因此这些电池供电的信标无法以足够大的密度部署或具有额外的传感功能来添加更广泛的功能，因此运营成本很高。

Lightricity aims to develop a light-powered wayfinding beacon product that makes inclusion of visually and mobility impaired people in indoor navigation systems both practically possible and economically viable.We will apply our patented, highly efficient, indoor PV (photovoltaic) technology and novel power management architectures to highly miniaturised battery-free wayfinding beacon devices. These maintenance-free devices will be designed for deployment at light fittings to ensure sufficient power for rapid beaconing and additional sensors in order to provide the required accuracy of location and other information that will enable audio guiding of the visually impaired and smart routing to help both the visually and mobility impaired navigate independently via the most accessible routes and avoiding obstacles.Our solution will address the current limitations of wayfinding solutions which are preventing IoT navigation solution providers from offering an inclusive service. Typically, they use battery-powered beacons for indoor navigation/wayfinding solutions in large buildings such as hospitals, transport hubs, shopping centres, offices and other public buildings. Hundreds to thousands of these devices placed in fixed locations in a building communicate directly with customer's mobile phones, helping them navigate routes on an App-based building map. These battery-powered beacons cannot be deployed at great enough density or with additional sensing function to add more inclusive functionality due to the high operational cost of having to change batteries every 6-12 months to maintain the required beaconing frequency and system accuracy.