Accessible Contextual Information for Urban Orientation Jason Stewart, Sara Bauman, Michelle Escobar, Jakob Hilden, Kumud Bihani, Mark W. Newman

Neha Laumas USC

Feb 2009

Agenda

Introduce Talking Points Accessible Contextual Information for Urban Orientation

Determining requirements for Talking Points Design goals for Talking Points The Talking Points Eco-system and its key

components Software/Hardware development of components How does Talking Points work? Critique

What is Talking Points?

An Urban Orientation System Provides contextual information about various Points of

Interest (POI) along a user's route.

Targeted towards the visually impaired but can also be used by the sighted

Accessible by both a graphical and a speech user interface.

Uses Community generated content Continuously updated by Talking Point Community Community relevant

Determining what Talking Points should do…

Information gathering using the “Wizard of Oz” field simulation technique Having users interact with a seemingly autonomous system that is operated by

unseen individuals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPBsCwjSYgM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzkAkszBL9o

Conducted Observation interviews for sighted and unsighted to understand attention, routing and prioritizing.

Gathered qualitative information from a focus group of sighted individuals.

Web links reference: http://talking-points.org/2008/02/08/wizard-of-oz-study/

Goals for Talking Points Both sighted and non sighted should benefit. Dynamic Data Content e.g. New location. Take special needs of the visually impaired into

consideration. Use of an unobtrusive mobile device Use a positional technology which does not lose

coverage in urban or indoor areas Provide personalized information with the ability

to filter content Iterative, 1st identify a few points regarding a

point of interest and then add detail.

The Talking Points Ecosystem

Reference: "Accessible contextual information for urban orientation", Stewart, Baumann, Escobar , Hilden, Bihani, Newman, International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, 2008

The Heart and Lungs of Talking Points

Social online database that facilitates user generated content creation and storage of the POI information

Mobile device that detects POIs and presents the contextual information through either a Speech User Interface (SUI) or a Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Design of Talking Points

Content Server Website allows users to contribute information. Users are able to create different types of information. Updates possible at any time Only creator can change “POI name” and “POI type”

Client software/Hardware The software was written in JAVA OQO Model 02 mobile computer, a palm-sized full performance PC with Bluetooth capability. Bluetooth was

chosen dues to its low cost, range detection, and degree of position detection precision.

Talking Points -How it all works!

University of Michigan student Jason Stewart hooks up to the Talking Points system in Ann Arbor. Stewart is part of a team who developed the system aimed at providing both visually impaired and non-visually impaired people with information on points of interest as one navigates through a city. Reference: http://www.mlive.com/living/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2008/10/university_of_michigan_student_1.html

Critique

How is the initial Content Server database set up? In case the system completely relies on contributors to set

up the online database it might take a while till the product can be in use.

What is the validity of the data being fed in by the contributors? In case of inaccuracies it might completely disorient the

visually impaired.

Responsibility for installation of Bluetooth tags at POIs is not defined

Trivia….

Students used off-the-shelf products to create Talking Points Talking Points is believed to be the first system operable with

voice commands to use Bluetooth, help both sighted and visually-impaired people, and incorporate community-generated feedback through a Web site.

Talking points originally used RFID but later changed to the more popular Bluetooth because of cost of RFID readers.

Developers of the current prototype software are engineering undergraduates Travis (Donggun) Yoo and Josh Rychlinksi, and recent engineering graduate Peter Kretschman

References http://talking-points.org/wp-content/presentation.pdf http://www.mlive.com/living/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2008/10/

university_of_michigan_student_1.html http://talking-points.org/ http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3387/u-of-michigan-

students-use-bluetooth-to-help-blind-and-seeing-pedestrians-roam-cities

http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6737