meng receives commitment for participation in the ScaleUp research project

But what does ScaleUp mean and what is behind the project?

Project

ScaleUp means the development of a scalable platform for wayfinding instructions for people with blindness and visual impairment using audio chatbots, smart localisation and open data for barrier-free, inclusive local passenger transport.

In addition to the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, the Ludwigsburg University of Applied Sciences with its Institute for Applied Research (EH/IAF), contagt GmbH, Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr GmbH (RNV) and the City of Mannheim are also involved.

Motivation

At least 1.2 million people in Germany are blind or visually impaired and using public transport is a particular challenge. They are often unsure which tram line or which bus is currently at the stop and are therefore dependent on outside help. Due to the requirement for accessibility by 2022, public transport stakeholders are intensively dealing with the question of how this can be achieved.

The primary user group, people with blindness and visual impairment, has special requirements and must be included in the development from the beginning. So far, neither measures based on the principle of "helping people to help themselves" are supported nor is existing open data offered barrier-free. In addition, an elaborate infrastructure is used for indoor/outdoor location, which is necessary for location-based audio cues.

Destination

In everyday life, people with blindness and visual impairment often lack basic information in travel situations, which makes independent orientation difficult. The new regulation in § 8 para. 3 of the Passenger Transport Act (2014) stipulates that public transport must be "completely barrier-free" by 2022. In order to be scalable, possible solutions must be cost-efficient and realisable nationwide in a timely manner.

With regard to the goal of a widespread roll-out, it was determined that further research and supplementation of three central components are indispensable for scalability. These are to be worked on in the present project:

• Cost-efficient positioning infrastructure: Easy-to-install Bluetooth beacons; combined use of smartphone depth sensing and the new European Galileo satellite positioning.
• Smart data collection: integration of open data from other projects (OSM, mCLOUD, BIM); outreach and "Mapathon" events for collaborative data collection.
• Accessible user interface: AI-based audio chatbot that can interactively explain paths/connections and a feedback channel for users to add data ("help for self-help").

We are looking forward to the joint project and will inform about the research results.