ARGUS Assisting personal guidance system for people with visual impairment

Newsletter N.1
March, 2012

Editorial
This first newsletter includes an introduction to the project ARGUS for those who are new to it and want to know its goals, developments and expected results. For those who already know about the project, there are updates on the status of the project tasks, dissemination activities and short articles on relevant issues. Finally, we want to express our gratitude to all end users involved in the project. Your inputs and cooperation are essential for the success of ARGUS project. The ARGUS team.

Summary

Introduction to ARGUS Identification of requirements Key features of the ARGUS system Binaural guidance concept tests Non-disturbance of general hearing Dissemination activities Next steps Consortium partners & collaborators

The project at a glance

Acronym: ARGUS Name: Assisting personal guidance system for people with visual impairment

Cofunded by EU under FP7-ICT Objective: ICT-2011.5.5 Contract No. FP7-28841

ICT for smart and personalised inclusion

Start: October-2011 End: March-2014 Project type: Collaboration Project Project status: Execution Project website: http://www.projectargus.eu

Introduction to ARGUS
The main goal of the ARGUS project is to develop innovative tools which could help blind and visually impaired people to move around autonomously and confidently. They could be used also by people working in low-visibility and hazardous conditions. ARGUS is being designed especially for: Blind and visually impaired people performing non-critical outdoor activities. Emergency and Rescue Teams and Health Professionals. People practicing scientific or sport activities in reduced visibility or hazardous conditions. Current satellite navigation systems provide information mostly through graphical displays or verbal output, which are not convenient for people who cannot see or have to operate in environments where verbal instructions could interfere with other external sounds. The challenge that ARGUS aims to meet is the integration of advanced user interfaces based on innovative acoustic and haptic signals, with minimal interference on the users perception and operation so that he/she can move around autonomously based on a threedimensional mental map of the path to follow.

The ARGUS system will consist primarily of a user-friendly portable satellitebased navigation device with acoustic and haptic user interfaces enabling users to obtain a 3D spatial insight of their surrounding environment, and providing continuous assistance to follow a predefined path in urban, rural or natural areas.
ARGUS will act like a "leading climber", providing users with a virtual safety rope guiding them along a track, based on the usage of non-visual interfaces to let the users build and maintain a mental map of the path to be followed. The system will allow downloading into the device pre-recorded tracks, paths, and points of interest. Once on-route, all what the user has to do is follow the continuous acoustic guidance and instructions provided by the device.

ARGUS will lead users along a secure path, warning on the risks that may find along the path and ensuring that the user doesnt deviate from the safe route.
Finally, in addition to the navigation system, an on-line service will be set-up for in situ routing assistance and a webbased collaborative environment including a social network will be developed for enabling users to share routes, data and experiences.

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Identification of Requirements
In the first task of the project the user requirements have been identified, for which, 24 direct interviews have been carried out and 58 answers to on-line questionnaire have been collected. User replies come from people that are totally blind, partially sighted, or fully sighted working in emergency services in 5 EU countries: Spain, Germany, Austria, Italia & United Kingdom. The analysis of all gathered data has provided a deep insight in the navigation needs of end users in their daily activities. Furthermore, the results of this survey have driven the technical specifications of the ARGUS system.

Key features of the ARGUS System

Smartphone with ARGUS application. Portable positioning box (satellite-based user position and orientation). Position augmentation for precise navigation. Multimodal interfaces (acousticbinaural, voice, haptic & visual). Itinerary management in real-time. Guiding along a pre-defined track, using acoustic-binaural and haptic signals. Open headphones allowing to receive route instructions without overriding ambient sound. POI (Points of Interest) management (helpful or critical points en route). Continuous upload of collected route data to ARGUS Service Platform. Permanent assistance through Call Centre. Web-based service to download tracks, POIs and warnings. Capability of track simulation and perception (go through track before navigation is performed in real environment).

Additionally, OK-Systems conducted interviews during a one-day tour accompanying the Mountain Group of the Spanish National Blind Organization (ONCE). Joining the group using a directional bar to navigate in complex mountain tracks was a golden opportunity to get a real guidance experience and observe the interests and limitations of the users concerning autonomous navigation. Finally, collected user and functional requirements were validated by end users in a dedicated workshop driven by The 425 Company at Southsea (UK).
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Social network to share experiences and get support from other users.

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Binaural guidance concept tests

Binaural sounds create the illusion that sounds produced by stereo headphones come from specific directions and distances, based on the interaural differences (arrival time and amplitude between the ears). This allows users perceiving 3D sound positioning, which can be used to guide visually impaired persons following a route (controlled via GNSS) giving a sense of 3D navigation. All the ARGUS partners made intensive tests aiming to demonstrate that binaural sounds could help people with reduced vision to perceive clearly the direction and distance of the sound source. Several visually impaired people and staff of emergency and rescue teams where invited to try different audio headphones. The tests had two different objectives: 1) evaluate the users acceptance of the different headphones in terms of sound perception, non disturbance hearing and comfort; 2) collect feedback from end users on binaural sounds and track perceptions. Binaural acoustic files where produced with acoustic binaural tracks consisting on sounds coming from moving sources. The results were very encouraging. Most users could feel and understand correctly the 3D sound information, and confirmed that this innovative guidance concept could be beneficial for them.

Non disturbance of general hearing tests

Different models of headphones are being evaluated in collaboration with end users by all ARGUS partners in order to validate the non-disturbance of general hearing. Its critically important for the project to demonstrate that it is possible to listen sounds produced by a device without blocking or interfering with other sounds from the environment because this fact could imply risks that could jeopardize the safety of the users while navigating with the ARGUS system. Some of the headphones tested use technologies based on bone sound conductivity. These technologies offer the advantage of transmitting high quality audio signals while keeping the ear open for ambient sounds perception.

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Dissemination activities
Internet
The first version of the public project website has been published in http://www.projectargus.eu

Marketing material
A flyer with a short summary of the project has been published. Translations to other languages will be soon be available for download from the website.

Next steps in the project

In the first six months of the project the tasks related with user and functional requirements specification have been accomplished. Besides, the general architecture of the ARGUS system has been designed. Next, in the following months development tasks for each relevant ARGUS component will start. More in detail, work will be focused on user terminal hardware design, development of the application platform for routing service delivery, and advanced options such as multilayer information management and social network for end users. In parallel, dissemination activities will be carried out constantly such as the presentation of the project at Real Corp 2012 event on 14-16 May, Schwechat (Austria).

Participation in Events
ARGUS was represented by Siemens on 18th January at Guide4Blind Das Soester Modell (The Soest model) Neue

Wege fr und mit dem Tourismus auch fr blinde und sehbehinderte Menschen
(New ways for tourism and for the blind and visually impaired people). http://www.nav4blind.de

Publications
A paper about ARGUS was submitted by CEIT to REAL CORP 2012 17th International Conference on Urban Planning and Regional Development in the Information Society GeoMultimedia 2012 14-16 May, Schwechat (Austria) http://www.corp.at

Contact information
Oihana Otaegui VICOMTECH-IK4 (www.vicomtech.es) Mikeletegi Pasealekua 57 Parque Tecnolgico E-20009 Donostia - San Sebastin, SPAIN Tel: +[34] 943 30 92 30 contact@projectargus.eu http://www.projectargus.eu

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Consortium partners
ARGUS project is carried out by a consortium of European organizations and coordinated by Vicomtech-IK4:

VICOMTECH-IK4 Visual Interaction and Communication Technologies Center

Donostia / San Sebastian (SPAIN) http://www.vicomtech.org/

SIEMENS AG
Corporate Technology, CT T DE ACC Accessibility Competence Center Paderborn (GERMANY) http://www.siemens.com/

CEIT ALANOVA
Schwechat (AUSTRIA) http://www.ceit.at/ceit-alanova/

TELECONSULT AUSTRIA GmbH

Graz (AUSTRIA) http://www.teleconsult-austria.at/

THE 425 COMPANY

Hants (UNITED KINGDOM) http://www.the425company.co.uk/

OLMEDO KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS

(SPAIN) http://www.ok-systems.com/

Collaborators:

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