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

在铁路运输中实施和迭代 WeWALK 基于代理的引导系统 (WeASSIST)，以改善视障客户体验

• 批准号: 10098144
• 金额: $ 48.08万
• 依托单位: WEWALK LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10098144
• 关键词: Implementing; Iterating; WeWALK; Agent; Based

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.

英国有超过200万视觉障碍的个体（VII）（ageuk \ _2015）；全球估计为2.53亿（Ackland \ _et \ _Al \ _2017）。随着人口的年龄，这将增加视力造成的影响不成比例地影响老年人。 VII通常与智能手机导航应用程序一起从白色的甘蔗中受益。但是，这仅检测到大约1m用户的膝盖高于膝关节的障碍。大多数智能手机界面无法访问，限制了它们的用处。这使得Viis安全地驾驶繁忙的城市地区，尤其是在有限的GPS可用性中需要关键任务导航和危害意识的铁路环境。为了应对这一挑战，Wewalk开发了一种革命性的“智能”设备，可以将用户的现有甘蔗拧到用户的现有拐杖上。它检测到膝关节高度的障碍物，并独特地连接到用户的智能手机，以通过与Google Maps，Moovit和Microsoft Services的集成来提供基于音频的导航。增强Wewalk的室内功能的努力导致创建了一项新服务，Weassist。 Weassist使用智能手机的相机通过视频喂养将VII与受过训练的代理联系起来。在Wewalk的定位技术和易用性的情况下，代理商可以指导用户通过任何环境，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士兵，解决了VII无法找到其目的地/运输路线的最后一英里问题，创建了一个全面，关键和可访问的导航系统。Weseassist正在持续开发，并且可以整合计算机视觉以进行对象识别和映射。但是，这尚未证明铁路应用程序的适当系统性能（准确/可靠性/可用性）。与RNIB合作，我们将解决防止在铁路环境中广泛采用基于代理的指导系统的技术/安全挑战。我们将建立在现有的Wewalk/Weassist架构的基础上，并使用新软件，为铁路运营商/客户提供安全至关重要的功能。该项目可以在确保数量增加的视力障碍人数可以完全访问铁路旅行的同时，同时改善员工的可用性和客户体验，从而发挥至关重要的作用。