01632163

Component

Large transportation hubs are difficult to navigate, especially for people with disabilities such as those with visual or mobility impairment, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), or simply those with navigation challenges. The primary objective of this research is to design and develop a novel cyber-physical infrastructure that can effectively and efficiently transform existing transportation hubs into smart facilities capable of providing better location-aware services (e.g. finding terminals, improving travel experience, obtaining security alerts). The authors investigated the integration of a number of novel Internet of Things elements, including video analytics, low-cost Bluetooth beacons, mobile computing, and LiDAR-scanned 3D semantic models, to provide reliable indoor navigation services to people with traveling challenges, yet requiring minimum infrastructure changes since the authors' approach leverages existing cyberinfrastructures such as surveillance cameras, facility models, and mobile phones, and incorporates a minimum number of new and small devices such as beacons to achieve reliable navigation services. The authors choose two groups of people for the authors' initial study– those with visual impairment and ASD since both groups face difficulties in a crowded and complex 3D environment. Thus two unique features of the authors' solution are the use of 3D digital semantic models and crowd analysis with surveillance cameras for providing the best available paths. The authors have started a pilot test with people with disabilities at a multi-floor building in New York City to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE60 Standing Committee on Accessible Transportation and Mobility. Alternate title: Building Smart Transportation Hubs with Internet of Things to Improve Services to People with Special Needs.

01618707

17-02576

English

0000-0002-2553-8603

14p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Bus terminals; Internet of things; Location; Pedestrian detectors; Persons with disabilities; Rail transit stations; Trajectory control; Wayfinding

Cyber physical systems

Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Terminals and Facilities

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-02576

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 10:58AM