skip to main content
10.1145/1409635.1409679acmotherconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesubicompConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Accessible contextual information for urban orientation

Published: 21 September 2008 Publication History

Abstract

We present Talking Points, an urban orientation system based on the idea that an individual's walking journey can be enhanced by providing contextual information about points of interest (POIs) along their route. Our formative research revealed numerous ways to provide serendipitous and task-critical information for both sighted and visually impaired users as they navigate through an urban environment on foot. Based on this, we developed a prototype system comprised of the following: an unobtrusive mobile device to present the user with contextual information; a socially maintained online database containing information about POIs; software that is accessible via both a graphical and a speech user interface; and location "tags" to be detected by the unobtrusive device. This socially maintained urban orientation and contextual information system offers relevant, dynamic, and up-to-date information, a combination which may not otherwise be accessible.

References

[1]
Abowd, G. D., et al. Cyberguide: A Mobile Context-Aware Tour Guide. Wireless Networks. 3, 5 (1997), 421--433.
[2]
Bellotti, V., et al. Activity-Based Serendipitous Recommendations with the Magitti Mobile Leisure Guide. Proc. CHI 2008. (2008), 1157--1166.
[3]
Bradley, N. and Dunlop, M. An Experimental Investigation into Wayfinding Directions for Visually Impaired People. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. 9, 6 (2005), 395--403.
[4]
Coroama, V. and Röthenbacher, F. The Chatty Environment Providing Everyday Independence to the Visually Impaired. UbiHealth 2003 Workshop at Ubicomp 2003. (2003).
[5]
Coroama, V., Kapic, T. and Röthenbacher, F. Improving the Reality Perception of Visually Impaired through Pervasive Computing. Adjunct Proc. Pervasive 2004. (2004).
[6]
Coughlan, J., Manduchi, R. and Shen, H. Cell Phone-based Wayfinding for the Visually Impaired. Proc. IMV 2006. (2006).
[7]
Davies, N., et al. Using and Determining Location in a Context-Sensitive Tour Guide. Computer. 34, 8 (2001), 35--41.
[8]
Espinoza, F., et al. GeoNotes: Social and Navigational Aspects of Location-Based Information Systems. Proc. UbiComp 2001 (2001), 2--17.
[9]
Gifford, S., Knox, J., James, J., and Prakash, A. Introduction to the talking points project. Proc. Assets '06. (2006), 271--272.
[10]
Greenfield, A. Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing. New Riders, Berkeley, CA, (2006).
[11]
Griswold, W. G., et al. ActiveCampus: Experiments in Community-Oriented Ubiquitous Computing. Computer. 37, 10 (2004), 73--81.
[12]
Harper, S. and Green, P. A Travel Flow and Mobility Framework for Visually Impaired Travellers. Proc. ICCHP 2000. (2000), 289--296.
[13]
Kaasinen, E. User Needs for Location-Aware Mobile Services. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. 7, 1 (2003), 70--79.
[14]
Kim, R. Bar Codes Create Bridge for Window-Shoppers, SFGate, (27 March, 2008). http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/27/BU1LVQQOB.DTL
[15]
Kintsch, A. and Depaula, R. A Framework for the Adoption of Assistive Technology. SWAAAC 2002: Supporting Learning Through Assistive Technology. (2002), 1--10.
[16]
Ling, R. The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone's Impact on Society. Morgan Kauffman Publishers, San Francisco, 2004.
[17]
Loadstone Project. http://www.loadstone-gps.com
[18]
Marston, J. R. and Golledge, R. G. Towards an Accessible City: Removing Functional Barriers for the Blind and Vision Impaired: A Case for Auditory Signs. Tech. Report, Dept. of Geography, University of California Santa Barbara. (1999).
[19]
National Council on Disability. Over the Horizon: Potential Impact of Emerging Trends in Information and Communication Technology on Disability Policy and Practice. Available from http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2006/emerging_trends.htm#_Toc151518465 (2006).
[20]
SESAMONET (SEcure and SAfe MObility NET). http://voice.jrc.it/sesamonet/proposal_en.htm
[21]
Wayfinder Access. http://www.wayfinderaccess.com

Cited By

View all
  • (2022)Visually Impaired People Navigation System using Sensors and Neural Network2022 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Human-Machine Systems (ICHMS)10.1109/ICHMS56717.2022.9980818(1-7)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2022
  • (2022)Sonification and interaction design in computer games for visually impaired individualsMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-022-11984-3Online publication date: 28-Jan-2022
  • (2018)Assistive Handlebar Based on Tactile Sensors: Control Inputs and Human FactorsSensors10.3390/s1808247118:8(2471)Online publication date: 30-Jul-2018
  • Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences
UbiComp '08: Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Ubiquitous computing
September 2008
404 pages
ISBN:9781605581361
DOI:10.1145/1409635
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

In-Cooperation

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 21 September 2008

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. accessibility
  2. blind
  3. contextual information system
  4. mobile computing
  5. urban orientation

Qualifiers

  • Research-article

Conference

UbiComp08

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 764 of 2,912 submissions, 26%

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)17
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)4
Reflects downloads up to 01 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2022)Visually Impaired People Navigation System using Sensors and Neural Network2022 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Human-Machine Systems (ICHMS)10.1109/ICHMS56717.2022.9980818(1-7)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2022
  • (2022)Sonification and interaction design in computer games for visually impaired individualsMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-022-11984-3Online publication date: 28-Jan-2022
  • (2018)Assistive Handlebar Based on Tactile Sensors: Control Inputs and Human FactorsSensors10.3390/s1808247118:8(2471)Online publication date: 30-Jul-2018
  • (2017)Audible Beacons and Wearables in SchoolsProceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3025453.3025518(4146-4157)Online publication date: 2-May-2017
  • (2014)Classification criteria for local navigation digital assistance techniques for the visually impaired2014 13th International Conference on Control Automation Robotics & Vision (ICARCV)10.1109/ICARCV.2014.7064576(1724-1728)Online publication date: Dec-2014
  • (2013)Towards ubiquitous awareness tools for blind peopleProceedings of the 27th International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference10.5555/2578048.2578095(1-5)Online publication date: 9-Sep-2013
  • (2013)Uncovering information needs for independent spatial learning for users who are visually impairedProceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/2513383.2513445(1-8)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2013
  • (2013)BlueViewProceedings of the 2013 ACM conference on Pervasive and ubiquitous computing adjunct publication10.1145/2494091.2494139(143-146)Online publication date: 8-Sep-2013
  • (2013)CrashAlertProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/2470654.2466463(3385-3388)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2013
  • (2013)Spatialized Audio Environmental Awareness for Blind Users with a SmartphoneMobile Networks and Applications10.1007/s11036-012-0425-818:3(295-309)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2013
  • Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media