Project

Many disabled users are prevented from accessing functionally and socially important activities such as shopping, visiting public parks, theatres etc. mainly because of a lack of readily available (i.e. in real-time) accessibility knowledge. (e.g. will the next bus be wheelchair friendly? is there anyone available in the supermarket to help with the shopping?)

The idea of MAPPED is to provide the user with the information they want whenever they want it, allowing them to plan and re-plan excursions while they are on the move. Therefore the user interface needs to be mobile. It will be based on an application running on PDAs or smart phones initially incorporating audio output to facilitate visually impaired and voice command recognition to assist the digitally disadvantaged. In the later stages of the project we will extend the range of users by ensuring that other assistive technologies can control the interface (e.g. headmouse). The amount of assistance that MAPPED can provide can be greatly increased by incorporating accurate localization information about the users. Currently there are a number of ways both in existence and being developed with several degrees of reliability to obtain this information, from the obvious satellite positioning, digital compass combination, through mobile phone base station signal triangulation, through to user intervention (e.g. indicating on a map where they are). MAPPED will be designed to use any form of localization estimation with several degrees of uncertainty, implicitly incorporating the uncertainty involved in the estimate, into the information it provides to the user. For the purposes of validating MAPPED, two localisation mechanisms have been employed: a satellite positioning system with digital compass combination and a disabled friendly user intervention mechanism. This user intervention mechanism will be based around users indicating that they are at the door of a certain establishment, (e.g. pub, coffee shop etc.). MAPPED will provide all the accessibility information the user needs to enter the establishment.

The four main components, which correspond to a large extent with the roles of the technical partners are:

1. Disability specific routing: The object of this component is to ensure that the system will calculate journeys from any point A to any other point B ensuring that all the accessibility requirements are considered in the calculation. In order to produce this component, innovative algorithms will need to be developed to incorporate the specific constraints involved: maps will need to be augmented, mechanisms to augment maps will need to be developed, as well as a system put in place to allow the booking service, where necessary.
2. Point Of Interest for accessibility information: This component aims to ensure that accessibility information is available when the users need it in the place where they need it. The technology that needs to be developed, will supply users with a list of points of interest (POI) in their vicinity providing information relevant to their disability. This information must be collected and stored in proper data structures in order to make this kind of services available.
3. Interfaces: MAPPED aims to ensure that its services would be useful to as many people as possible. The challenge of this component is to ensure that the interface or interfaces are usable by people with the broadest range of disabilities as possible.
4. Data protection policies: MAPPED aims to manage users' account and preferences in the most secure and ethically-correct way. The way information is collected, maintained and disclosed is provided by the Data Proctection Legislations of the countries involved in the project