[nfb-talk] Way-finding devices for buildings

[Wendy David]

I've had people ask me how to find their towel on the beach after going for 
a swim, or their chair at a crowded hotel pool after taking a dip.  It would 
be great to have something that could be waterproof as well.
Wendy  David

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Bullis" <mabullis at hotmail.com>
To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2010 8:07 AM
Subject: [nfb-talk] Way-finding devices for buildings


> Many of us have talked about developing a device for way-finding that 
> would,
> for example, help us find our way back from a podium to our seat, or to 
> some
> location earlier visited in a building.
>
> Such a device would also be handy in a large field where one would like to
> return to a starting point.
>
> The difficulty has been that gps simply doesn't provide enough 
> specificity,
> pretty much limited to an eleven foot area.  When finding a seat, 11 feet
> isn't quite adequate.  The other issue is that gps doesn't work in tall
> buildings.
>
>
>
> This article from Tech Review for 8/19 might provide a direction.  The 
> nice
> thing is that it's not for blind people so would have broader appeal and
> lower cost in the long run.
>
>
>
>    Finding Our Way with Digital Bread Crumbs
>
>
>
>    A Microsoft research project explores whether sensors in mobile devices
>
>    could help us navigate without GPS.
>
>
>
>    By Evan I. Schwartz
>
>
>
>    In the classic tale by the Brothers Grimm, Hansel and Gretel leave a
>
>    trail of bread crumbs from their home so as not to get lost in the
>
>    forest, but the plan fails when birds eat the crumbs. In the modern
>
>    world, a GPS device could assist the fabled siblings. But what if they
>
>    wandered into a place without GPS signals?
>
>
>
>    With that kind of problem in mind, a team of researchers at Microsoft
>
>    set out to create a mobile device that could forge a trail of "digital
>
>    bread crumbs." The device would collect the trail data while the user
>
>    walked indoors, underground, or in other spaces where GPS signals are
>
>    unavailable or weak--such as multilevel parking garages that can baffle
>
>    people who forget where they parked.
>
>
>
>    The resulting Microsoft Research device, a prototype phone called
>
>    Menlo, packs a suite of sensors: an accelerometer to detect movement, a
>
>    side-mounted compass to determine direction, and a barometric pressure
>
>    sensor to track changes in altitude.
>
>
>
>    While existing phones contain some of these sensors, what's new about
>
>    Menlo is an app called Greenfield, which aims to solve the Hansel and
>
>    Gretel problem by harnessing the data from the sensors. The goal is to
>
>    count a user's sequence of steps, gauge direction changes, and even
>
>    calculate how many floors the user has traversed by stairs or an
>
>    elevator. The app stores the trail data so that a user can later
>
>    retrace his path precisely.
>
>
>
>    The researchers call Greenfield an example of "activity-based
>
>    navigation." In a paper to be presented at the MobileHCI conference in
>
>    Lisbon, Portugal, next month, the Microsoft team positions Greenfield
>
>    as an ideal method of navigation in places where maps haven't been
>
>    constructed or aren't accessible. For the paper, [3]computer scientist
>
>    A.J. Brush and her team conducted a trial in which people had to
>
>    retrieve an object from a colleague's parked car in a large garage,
>
>    using the coworker's trail data to navigate the way.
>
>
>
>    "I knew this was possible, but I was wondering when someone would put
>
>    all the pieces together," says Jeff Fischbach, a forensic technologist
>
>    with [4]SecondWave Information Systems, a consulting firm in
>
>    Chatsworth, CA. Fischbach often serves as an expert witness in criminal
>
>    trials in which GPS data is used as evidence. He says that trail data
>
>    from an app like Greenfield could help determine whether a murder
>
>    suspect is truthfully stating an alibi. "This kind of data is terrific
>
>    for convicting people and terrific at exonerating people."
>
>
>
>    But since such trail data can be retrieved, transmitted to the
>
>    Internet, and even subpoenaed by the government, this raises the most
>
>    extreme sort of privacy issues. "How can you control who has access to
>
>    the data?" Fischbach says. And would employers use it to keep close
>
>    track of their workers?
>
>
>
>    The potential applications are numerous. Greenfield could be used for
>
>    new kinds of urban street games, to recover lost items, to find friends
>
>    at a stadium, or to rescue hikers and mountain climbers. The
>
>    researchers cite a 2002 book, [5]Inner Navigation, by engineer Erik
>
>    Jonnson, who argues that everyone struggles with creating "cognitive
>
>    maps." Even those who have an excellent sense of direction can be
>
>    tricked by their own recall, sometimes remembering landscapes in
>
>    precisely opposite layouts. "I think people have an inner compass,"
>
>    Jonnson says, "and when it goes wrong, the most amazing things happen."
>
>
>
>    In their test at two different parking garages--one with GPS signals
>
>    and one without--the Microsoft team started subjects in an adjacent
>
>    office building and handed each of them a piece of paper listing the
>
>    color, make, model, and license plate number of a colleague's car.
>
>    (This kind of problem was familiar to most of the study's participants;
>
>    one said that losing track of a car in a garage is "catastrophic.") The
>
>    subjects were given a Menlo device running Greenfield, which had
>
>    recorded an activity trail, for use in retracing the way back. In some
>
>    cases, the trail data was enhanced by photographs taken along the
>
>    route.
>
>
>
>    Every participant in the study found every car, at least eventually.
>
>    But since several configurations of bread-crumb data were tested, there
>
>    was wide variation in how long it took each subject, depending on what
>
>    kind of information was displayed. Even when they were told what garage
>
>    floor and quadrant the car was on, subjects often forgot and had to
>
>    rely on the device for direction.
>
>
>
>
>
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