Implementing and Iterating WeWALK’s Agent-Based Guidance System (WeASSIST) in Rail Transport to Improve Visually Impaired Customer Experience

英国有超过200万名视力受损者（VIIs）（2015年）;全球估计为2.53亿人（Ackland\_et\_al\_2017年）。随着人口老龄化，这将增加视力丧失对老年人的影响。VIIs从白色手杖中受益，可以四处走动，通常与智能手机导航应用程序相结合。然而，这仅检测用户大约1米范围内膝盖高度以下的障碍物。大多数智能手机界面无法访问，限制了它们的实用性。这使得VIIs在忙碌的城市地区安全导航成为一项挑战，特别是在GPS可用性有限的铁路环境中需要关键任务导航和危险意识。为了应对这一挑战，WeWALK开发了一种革命性的“智能”设备，可以拧到用户现有的手杖上。它可以检测膝盖到头部高度的障碍物，并独特地连接到用户的智能手机，通过与谷歌地图，Moovit和微软服务的集成提供基于音频的导航。为了增强WeWALK的室内功能，创建了一项新服务WeASSIST。使用智能手机的摄像头，WeASSIST通过视频馈送将VIIs与训练有素的特工联系起来。在WeWALK的定位技术和易用性的补充下，代理可以在任何环境中引导用户，并根据用户的要求提供个性化的描述。该项目将在铁路环境中实施WeASSIST，解决VIIs无法定位其目的地/运输路线的最后一英里问题，创建一个全面的，安全关键的和可访问的导航系统。WeASSIST正在不断开发中，可以集成计算机视觉进行对象识别和映射。然而，这还没有得到充分的系统性能（准确性/可靠性/可用性）的铁路应用证明。与RNIB合作，我们将解决技术/安全挑战，防止广泛采用基于代理的引导系统在铁路环境中。我们将在现有WeWALK/WeASSIST架构的基础上，使用新软件为铁路运营商/客户提供安全关键功能。该项目可以在确保越来越多的视障人士完全获得铁路旅行方面发挥至关重要的作用，同时提高员工可用性和客户体验。

There are over 2-million Visually Impaired Individuals(VIIs) in the UK(AgeUK\_2015); globally estimated at 253-million(Ackland\_et\_al\_2017). As populations age, this will increase as sight-loss disproportionally impacts older people. VIIs benefit from the white cane to get around, often in conjunction with smartphone navigation apps. However, this only detects obstacles below knee-height within approximately 1m of the user. Most smartphone interfaces are inaccessible, limiting their usefulness. This makes it challenging for VIIs to safely navigate busy urban areas, particularly railway environments requiring mission-critical navigation and hazard-awareness in limited GPS-availability.To address this challenge, WeWALK have developed a revolutionary "smart" device that screws onto a user's existing cane. It detects obstacles at knee-to-head height and uniquely connects to a user's smartphone to provide audio-based navigation via integration with Google Maps, Moovit, and Microsoft services. Efforts to enhance WeWALK's indoor capabilities resulted in the creation of a new service, WeASSIST. Using a smartphone's camera, WeASSIST connects VIIs with trained agents through video-feed. Supplemented by WeWALK's positioning technology and ease-of-use, agents guide users through any environment, providing personalised descriptions at the user's request. This project will implement WeASSIST in a railway environment, solving last-mile problems where VIIs fail to locate their destination/transport route, creating a comprehensive, safety-critical, and accessible navigation system.WeASSIST is in constant development and can integrate computer-vision for object-recognition and mapping. However, this has not yet been demonstrated with adequate system performance (accuracy/reliability/usability) for rail applications.Partnering with RNIB, we will address the technical/safety challenges preventing widespread uptake of agent-based guidance systems in railway environments. We will build on existing WeWALK/WeASSIST architectures with new software to provide safety-critical functionality to railway operators/customers. This project can play a vital role in ensuring the rising numbers of visually impaired people have full access to rail travel while improving staff availability and customer experience.