ElderWeb

Researchers presented information about new technology to help blind and low-vision people find their way around public places at the American Society on Aging / National Council on Aging annual conference in San Francisco.

Jim Marston, PhD, Research Unit on Spatial Cognition and Choice, Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara discussed problems faced by visually-impaired people negotiating public transportation systems. Dr. Marston began studying the problems of using public transportation systems when he lost his ability to drive due to his own declining vision. He found that public transportation systems are especially confusing and disorienting to people with little or no vision.

This is a problem that will be encountered by others in the aging population, since many older people will eventually reach a point where they can no longer drive, and many seniors may effectively be blind in real world situations like public transportation (see related story in the sidebar).

As a solution to those problems, Jim Marston, PhD, Research Unit on Spatial Cognition and Choice, Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara and C. Ward Bond, President, Talking Signs, Inc, Baton Rouge, LA described Talking Signs?. Talking Signs? technology is an infrared wireless communications system that provides remote directional human voice messages that make confident, independent travel possible for vision impaired and print-handicapped individuals. The technology was pioneered and developed at Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center in San Francisco, California.

Using this technology, infrared transmitters are placed on signs and in other strategic spots and "read" with handheld readers carried by the visually-impaired. Each infrared transmitter sends details that make the information on the sign meaningful to someone who can't read it. For instance, an infrared transmitter on the front of a train might tell the name of the train and its destination, a transmitter on an exit sign might include instructions on which direction to turn to get to the exit.

Dr. Marston took blind people into public transportation sites like CalTrain and BART stations and asked them to find their way to a specific gate, find bathrooms and amenities, and so forth. Most of his subjects had to resort to asking for help. He then had them negotiate the same station using Talking Signs? and found that they had significantly improved rates of success, generally without needing to ask for help.

The developers see several advantages in this system over either Braille or loud speaker systems.

The message is specific to the user, not broadcast to the public. This makes it possible to tailor the information with instructions about which direction to turn.

The message can be delivered in any language, again tailoring it to the user.

The user does not have to get right next to the sign to know it is there and read it, the sign can be "read" from as much as 100 feet away.

If there are several signs in an area, only one, the one the reader is pointed at, is "read" at a time, reducing the confusion that would ensue from numerous simultaneous loud speaker messages.

The technology has been installed in hundreds of places in several countries already, and the company has plans to add new features, including a "hands-free" headset receiver, and an all-inclusive handheld device that would consolidate a receiver with a cell phone, PDA, GPS, and compass.