The digital system Wayfindr που από το 2014 επιτρέπει στους χρήστες με προβλήματα όρασης να περιηγηθούν στο υπόγειο subway of London using sound, wishes to develop the technology of all over the world.
The technologists of this just have published their plans for extension of using the standard system, which can guide someone by sound alone, using wireless technology.
The Wayfindr is the result of a partnership between one forum for young people at the Royal London Society for Blind People (RLSB) and Ustwo. The technology consists of Bluetooth beacons scattered around different areas of a route that sync with a one-to-one app smartphone. Users can listen to directions either through special headphones or through the smartphone's speakerphone, and when they pass the beacons receive specific audio directions telling them where they are and where to go. Since 2014, the digital navigation system has been trialled at Pimlico and Euston tube stations in London, as well as in Sydney, Australia.
Mr. Kevin Dunning, London Underground Manager, reported that there are about 70 with 80 Bluetooth beacons at both Euston and Pimlico stations, that he is a supporter of the new technology and that he envisions how Wayfindr could develop across the underground network of London in the future.
And while Wayfindr is currently limited to underground spaces, manufacturers want to start developing it in other interiors, such as shopping centers and hospitals, as the community of people who are interested in implementing it in their countries has grown.
We hope to come to Greece at some point, but by then, if you go to the London Underground and see people with the classic crowd of blind people having a smartphone in front of them, do not suspect that they are mocking you. They do not represent visually impaired people, but they just hear Wayfindr's directional instructions.
