Visually impaired and elderly commuters to get new bus app
05 Mar 2015|1,864 views
The Straits Times reported that three 19-year old Ngee Ann Polytechnic students, Matthew Lee, Kok Jian Yu and Jeremy Lim, have developed a voice-assisted app called TrAVEl (Travel Assistant for the Visually Impaired and the Elderly), to help people get from place to place more easily.
It guides the user throughout his journey, including any change of buses, by using GPS to track where he is. He can either say his destination or enter it by text. The app lets him know when his bus arrives, and gives a running commentary of the bus stops en route, as well as alerting the traveller if he needs to change buses.
Before reaching the destination, TrAVEl alerts the user with an alarm, in case he is asleep or is distracted. And if he misses his stop, the app automatically calculates an alternate route.
TrAVEl has already been tested by visually impaired guides from Dialogue in the Dark Singapore, a walking tour of various simulated environments in complete darkness in the polytechnic. One of the guides, 51-year old Sim Kah Yong, who has some degree of vision, said, "The buttons on this app are very big, and I have a little vision, so I can see the words on the app. So for the elderly, whose vision isn't very good, this will help them."
When The Straits Times tried out the app, it could not recognise places like 'Choa Chu Kang MRT'. The students said that this was something that they needed to work on to improve the app, which is still currently a prototype. They intend to release the app on Android in May, free-of-charge. It took 16 weeks for the students to complete, and was developed in collaboration with SMRT, which provided them with the database of buses and the technology to calculate the arrival times.
The Straits Times reported that three 19-year old Ngee Ann Polytechnic students, Matthew Lee, Kok Jian Yu and Jeremy Lim, have developed a voice-assisted app called TrAVEl (Travel Assistant for the Visually Impaired and the Elderly), to help people get from place to place more easily.
It guides the user throughout his journey, including any change of buses, by using GPS to track where he is. He can either say his destination or enter it by text. The app lets him know when his bus arrives, and gives a running commentary of the bus stops en route, as well as alerting the traveller if he needs to change buses.
Before reaching the destination, TrAVEl alerts the user with an alarm, in case he is asleep or is distracted. And if he misses his stop, the app automatically calculates an alternate route.
TrAVEl has already been tested by visually impaired guides from Dialogue in the Dark Singapore, a walking tour of various simulated environments in complete darkness in the polytechnic. One of the guides, 51-year old Sim Kah Yong, who has some degree of vision, said, "The buttons on this app are very big, and I have a little vision, so I can see the words on the app. So for the elderly, whose vision isn't very good, this will help them."
When The Straits Times tried out the app, it could not recognise places like 'Choa Chu Kang MRT'. The students said that this was something that they needed to work on to improve the app, which is still currently a prototype. They intend to release the app on Android in May, free-of-charge. It took 16 weeks for the students to complete, and was developed in collaboration with SMRT, which provided them with the database of buses and the technology to calculate the arrival times.
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