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

英国有200多万视障人士(AgeUK 2015)；全球估计有2.53亿人(Ackland Et Al 2017)。随着人口老龄化，这一数字将增加，因为失明对老年人的影响不成比例。VII受益于白色手杖的出行，通常与智能手机导航应用程序结合使用。然而，这只检测到用户大约1米范围内膝盖高度以下的障碍物。大多数智能手机的界面都是无法访问的，这限制了它们的实用性。这给VII在繁忙的城市地区安全导航带来了挑战，特别是在有限的GPS可用性下需要关键任务导航和危险意识的铁路环境。为了应对这一挑战，WeWALK开发了一种革命性的“智能”设备，可以拧紧用户现有的拐杖。它可以探测齐膝至头的障碍物，并通过与谷歌地图、Moovit和微软服务的集成，独特地连接到用户的智能手机，提供基于音频的导航。为了加强WeWALK的室内能力，创建了一项新的服务，WeASSIST。WeASSIST使用智能手机的摄像头，通过视频馈送将VII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，代理商可以在任何环境中指导用户，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VII无法定位目的地/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正在不断发展中，可以集成计算机视觉来进行目标识别和地图绘制。然而，这还没有被证明具有足够的系统性能(准确性/可靠性/可用性)用于铁路应用。我们将与RNIB合作，解决阻碍基于代理的导航系统在铁路环境中广泛采用的技术/安全挑战。我们将在现有的WeWALK/WeASSIST架构上构建新的软件，为铁路运营商/客户提供安全关键功能。该项目可以发挥至关重要的作用，确保越来越多的视障人士能够充分利用铁路旅行，同时改善工作人员的可用性和客户体验。

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.