GPS Tracking ROI

GPS navigation plan to help blind

By Geoff Adams-Spink
Age & disability correspondent, BBC News website

Easy Walk is available on Symbian mobile phones

An Italian technology company is pioneering a GPS satellite system that will give blind people greater independence and mobility.

The Easy Walk service has been developed by Il Village, a firm in Turin in northern Italy.

It is currently being tested by a group of 30 people from the Italian Blind Union who are providing feedback. The plan is for Easy Walk to be launched to blind and partially sighted people in Piedmont in the autumn.

Easy Walk uses a mobile phone that runs the Symbian operating system, a small Bluetooth GPS receiver, text to speech software called Talks (though rival products are also compatible) and a call centre that will operate around the clock seven days a week….

“What is really important is that behind all that stuff there is a call centre with a human being that can help you and who understands your needs,” he said.

The system has already been tested across the border in France and Switzerland.

The first phase of the project has resulted in 95% accuracy in determining a user’s exact location and Mr de Paoli intends to rebuild the system from scratch for the second phase of testing to achieve 100% reliability. Read the full BBC article here:

I’m already on record as strongly supportive of all technologies to help those less abled, and certainly the blind. In fact just about a year ago I note I wrote a piece on this same subject where I wrote about old friends Thom Foulks (RIP) and Bonnie Snyder, two of many whom I used to spend a lot of time with thinking up ways to assist people with technology. This is still one of my favorite subjects. However, I also am a long-time GPS practioner and the term “Can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” comes to mind.

I applaud Mr. de Paoli’s efforts but I’d like to bring a couple points to his attention as well as to Mr. Adams-Spink, who as a reporter for an agency as English as the BBS News ought to know more about precision of language … especially when people’s hopes and dreams may be riding on your reportage. (more…)

Satellite guidance for the visually impaired
16 June 2006
A prototype satellite navigation system accurate enough to direct vision-impaired pedestrians to their destination has recently been successfully demonstrated in Madrid.

Seen from a distance, a blind man guided by his dog in the streets of Madrid seems quite sure of his way. In fact, he is not listening to music with his headphones but receiving directions to his destination: “turn to the right, turn to the left, continue straight ahead…” Thanks to a mobile phone combined with a position receiver and a voice synthesizer, he can walk confidently through the city while being guided by satellite.

Developed by ESA, with the Spanish firm GMV Sistemas, this device offers greater autonomy for the visually impaired. The system is not intended to replace a white cane or a guide dog but to complement them with an ‘audible map’. The user no longer needs to seek frequent guidance from other pedestrians; the guidance equipment follows his every move and advises him accordingly. Full Article Here:

Had this one in my in box for a few days. It’s a really useful and heartwarming use of GPS technology. In outside applications, GPS will help a lot, but remember that on city streets, with a plus or minus five meter tolerance, it’s not going to guide a person into a specific doorway.

I’m glad to see the ESA. European Space Agency taking a role like this. It’s a bit interesting to note that even though so many EU members have very little to say good about the US … ever, they don’t seem to have much trouble using our free to the world service like GPS. Which is fine, that’s what we built it for.

Of course if the EU … especially France who owes its very existence to the US but whose national pastime is eschewing everything US … wasn’t completely duplicating the US GPS system with their own over-priced and under-featured Galileo … just to be able to call it _theirs_. we could equip every blind person in the EU with one of these devices and probably a lot more in other countries. Oh we;;, nations have their priorities, don’t they?

Tags: gps, gps tracking, gps for the blind, blind, service dogs

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This week we’re going to do something a little different here at the SatViz GPS Blog. A few weeks back I blogged a couple entries about a GPS tracking project being implemented in the city of Philadelphia. See here: And here: And here: Two things seemed noteworthy about this project:

The first thing I noticed different to most such projects was that the city official most responsible for the bidding and selection process has conveniently accepted a managerial role with the winning contractor. Where I come from that smacks pretty loudly of conflict of interest, but due to some technicalities (or a city attorney who won’t win any prizes for diligence) the matter got all swept under the rug. Sad …but I lived near Philly for many years and observed the city government closely. Suspicions confirmed.

The second thing I noticed was that the system was really being rammed down the throat of the drivers. Hundreds of cities have GPS-enabled taxis, hundreds more will. One can expect that in many cases the drivers aren’t going to have a parade and fireworks show in honor of the new system. But there are business and safety advantages that ought to help the drivers, as well as “spy” on them, so most places that have adopted such systems get at least driver acceptance, if not enthusiasm. It’s apparent to me that the city … specifically the Parking Authority … was doing a really poor job of working the real users of the system into the project.

I received a very interesting comment from Mr. Ronald Blount on the aspects of this system that appeared very negative to the drivers, and I’ve exchanged some emails with Ron that have been educational. Here’s his latest:

My name is Ronald Blount and I am the president of the Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania. We serve over 1100 taxi drivers and owner operators. I have been driving a taxi in Philadelphia for about 23 years. Personally, I have a navigation system in my private car and truly enjoy it. These taxi regulators are using these systems to generate money from the working class poor. Nationally, the taxi industry (drivers) are 85% first generation immigrants and most are working class poor. Drivers have to work at least 7 hours before they can earn a profit for themselves. These peoples typically don’t have a voice and the system usually walks on them because nobody cares. I compliment you on your willingness to learn more.

Thanks : Ron

Well I did a little checking around on this and found that the protests and bad feelings run a lot deeper that anyone would normally associate with a piece of technology. Here’s a news item on a strike the Alliance staged . Here’s Ron being interviewed on a local podcast. This has already been very instructive to me, as an advocate and dealer in these systems, and ought to be required reading for anyone planning to implement a GPS, on taxis or any other work vehicles.

If you aren’t treating your workers right and you try to implement a GPS, it could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. From a business’s standpoint the reason to use a GPS is to increase profitability (and even, done right) to improve working conditions for employees. In this case, with a city agency exercising governance over independent companies and owner/operators, the goals should only differ slightly … to improve taxi service which will attract more tourism dollars to the city and (again, if done better than it seems to be being done in Philadelphia) to improve potential profitability for the men and women who make the rubber meet the road …and enhance their safety,

I’d like to hear more from Ron, any other taxi operators or drivers in Philly, or anywhere else on this subject. I’m going to devote the week to more information about taxis and GPS taxis in general, and especially to some strategies I know will work in making the implementation of GPS less traumatic. I don’t know if anyone in the Parking Authority will read or take any notice of this, but if you’re a business owner or government official who is currently considering a move to GPS I can certainly promise it will be worth your while to read this … I’ve been implementing GPS tracking for a lot of years now, and no driver’s ever ridden me out of town on a rail (or a one way taxi ride) yet.

Tune back in for Part 2 tomorrow, Good, Bad and Ugly of Taxis ‘Round The World

Tags: gps, Philadelphia taxis, business, workers

Well you have the idea that GPS tracking can do a lot for
your business. So, you start evaluating the markets and seeing what’s available.
Suddenly you come across some snags. It
looks like you can’t use GPS for your application because of one or more of the
known GPS accuracy problems:

1. Basic Accuracy: The standard signal is good, at best, to 15 meters.
2. Urban Canyon: If your vehicles are constantly on city streets, in the shadow of tall
   buildings, they won’t attain 15 meter accuracy at all times.
3. People or Vehicles Indoors: If a GPS receiver is under a roof, accuracy is significantly degraded

As I wrote not long ago on my interest in GPS for the blind, as marvelous as
the GPS is, like any system it has its limits.

(more…)

Technology now helping the blind navigate streets and find restaurants … full article here:

An interesting article a few days ago in a general circulation tech news site brought me back to a memory of some years ago when the GPS system first became fully operational and publicly available. I had a dream, a dream I seem to have put on hold unintentionally. (more…)