Mobile Accessibility using Indoor positioning
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | TFLOW AB |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 500 000 |
| Project duration | May 2016 - November 2016 |
| Status | Completed |
Purpose and goal
The purpose of this project was to create an indoor positioning, within larger buildings, with sufficient accuracy to provide a trusted and positive user experiences for visitors with and without disabilities. The aim was to combine custom indoor map function, routing, positioning and couple this with the text-to-speech module of Android and iOS devices in modern mobile phones. This would provide a tremendous digital assistant for visitors across the spectrum.
Expected results and effects
Using BLE sensors throughout the entire building, so called Beacons, we achieved a high level of accuracy despite signal strengths varied across the venue, Stockholmsmässan in Sweden. By simply downloading an app to you iOS or Android device the visitor can get virtual assistance throughout the venue, visual and audio guide from current location to the requested booth or seminar event. With the new additional disability function we are also able to assist visually and moving impaired visitors by providing alternate routes that are optimised, avoiding obstacles such as stairs.
Planned approach and implementation
The approach was to create a grid of sensors to achieve the optimal positioning. During the analysis we knew that areas with extremely high ceiling would be adversely affected due to the reduce signal strength. The other challenge was the map, creating a dynamic custom map of a venue where the indoor "landscape" changes several times per month. With collaboration with Mapbox we achieved this for all devices. Our largest obstacle that we did account for, was the poor quality of the initial batch of Beacons. This issue caused the delay and ultimately nearly fractured the project.