[NAGDU] Indoor navigation and robot guide

[Vanessa Lowery]

Tracy, if facilities like the place where my dad is installed good maps indoors, as an example, that would work. The Seeing Eye has tested that to some extent within their own building. But it doesn't work quite as well, not so much because it's technology, but because each office that has been open" labeled", is so close to its neighboring office that my understanding is at the user ends up getting confused, I think because the information comes too quickly for the person to figure out where here she is. I had the app installed on my phone, but I honestly never noodled around with it. But the feedback that I got from others was that because the office were so close to each other that it didn't work out as well. But in an assisted living facility which is huge, something like good maps indoors would probably work  Which I could access with my phone. 
Vanessa and the zoo  
Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 9, 2024, at 1:41 PM, Tracy Carcione via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> The article said the robot guide would hook up with indoor maps to help the
> user find their way around inside buildings.  So, in Vanessa's example of
> finding her father's room in the assisted living place, she would probably
> do something like put in "room 325" and the robot would somehow indicate
> where she should turn, etc.  That would be handy, but, if there is an indoor
> map, why couldn't it hook to my phone just as well as to a robot, and I
> could use the mobility technique of my choice?  I'd really like that,
> especially when I go to a mall, which I find very difficult to navigate
> without sighted help.  I used to have a sighted friend who enjoyed shopping,
> and we would go to the mall together, but she has moved away, and my other
> friends are not at all interested.  So I only go to a mall if I really,
> really need something there.
> 
> Wouldn't it be great if I could go to the mall and have a map in my phone,
> and I could walk along having it tell me what I was passing, or put in, say,
> Macy's, and it would give me directions, including choices for if I wanted
> the elevator, escalator, or stairs?  Or the same for big office buildings,
> where you need, say, to find your doctor's office and there's no one around
> in the halls to ask.
> 
> But, in the things I've read on this topic so far, the building management
> has to provide the map, or someone has to walk around the place and map it
> out, and, often, some kind of markers have to be put in for the navigation
> to read.  And that just doesn't happen all that often.  No surprise-just
> look at all the buildings that still don't have basic accessibility, like
> braille on elevators or wheelchair-accessible entrances.  
> 
> But that kind of tech seems like it could happen much faster than a robot
> that is really reliable, and, if the battery fails or the signal isn't good,
> it's not the disaster it would be for the guide robot.
> 
> Tracy
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> NAGDU mailing list
> NAGDU at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NAGDU:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/val4dogs%40gmail.com