London’s visually impaired may now navigate in Euston Station for series of trials (via Wayfindr)
Wayfindr is a non-profit organization with some hefty goals that are potentially gaining ground. Wayfinder’s vision to empower ‘vision impaired people to independently navigate the world’ was birthed as part of Ustwo studio’s “invest time” program. While this incubator program helped give it legs, Wayfindr has been independently teaming up with leaders who can help make navigation systems for the vision impaired a reality. Among these leaders is Google who recently awarded the non-profit a $1 million grant.
While the company has a large and far-reaching vision that includes creating an open standard for Bluetooth beacon navigation across London (and hopefully the world), they are starting with a much-awaited trial in London’s Euston Station. The technology they are implementing is not revolutionary, which is what makes it so viable. The use of Bluetooth beacons paired with smartphone apps have been used to help people navigate through airports, like KLM’s recent app created for its Amsterdam terminals. Their technology doesn’t use WiFi or require internet connection of any kind (which would be hard for underground tube use) and simply guides users to their destination by vocally directing them from one Bluetooth beacon to the next.
Their current pilot program in Euston Station (which has over 3.4 million travelers per month) seemed successful as Wayfindr released a short and cheerful YouTube video demonstrating their technology and vision.
However, while their technology may not be presenting big hurdles, getting companies to cooperate to realize their vision may be proving very challenging.
Wayfindr isn’t actually creating any of the software or hardware for this vison, they are simply trying to negotiate with everyone to make things happen. While such a philanthropic project seems compelling, companies like Pandya, who creates their software and phone application, are focusing on more marketable opportunities. Pandya envisions utilizing this technology and software to navigate tourists around London in a variety of languages. While such an idea may take off, it’s not exactly focused on helping improve the lives of London’s vision impaired.
Another hurdle Wayfindr has is convincing big players to accept an open standard that would allow their software to use any Bluetooth beacon around London to help users navigate. While Wayfindr is collaborating with Transport for London, Blindsquare, Kontakt.io, and The Royal London Society for Blind People to try and make an open standard a reality, it won’t be easy.
In a capitalistic society, many of their collaborators seem to be thinking, “what’s in it for me?” Still, perhaps Wayfindr will be able to negotiate a happy medium that benefits all parties. They are still in the trial phase, so it will be a while yet before the visually impaired can experience the full benefit of Wayfindr’s efforts. The next steps Wayfindr wants to take involves incorporating new WiFi mapping technology into their application. Until then, figuring out how to distribute Bluetooth beacons all over London’s underground may prove challenging enough.
This seems to be a promising project that may begin helping the visually impaired in the near future if Wayfindr successfully navigates all of its cooks in the kitchen.
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