chrispeng [ad_1]
The European Union stipulates that by 2013 European bus system operators must provide more assistance to visually impaired people. Verkehrsbetriebe St. Gallen (VBSG), a Swiss bus agency, is launching an RFID system to help blind passengers check traffic information at bus stops, understand the route of passing vehicles, and stop them.
The system, called PAVIP (Personal Assistant for Visually Impaired People), was developed by Bones Inc in May. Currently, all 70 buses in St. Gallen are equipped with active UHF RFID modules that can receive and send data; 260 bus stops in the city are equipped with a passive HF RFID tag. A total of 15 blind people participated in the test of the system, and St. Gallen also plans to conduct a city-wide test in mid-August of this year, when 250 blind people will participate in the test.
The basic equipment of the PAVIP project is the Bones Milestone, a small hand-held device consisting of a HF RFID reader, an UHF transceiver (same as the modules installed in the bus), a digital voice recorder and a It is composed of players that can play MP3 files and other audio files. Bones Milestone’s embedded RFID high frequency reader includes a TI RFID reader IC TRF7960 that supports passive, 13.56 MHz tags compliant with ISO 14443A, ISO 14443B, ISO 15693 and ISO 18000-3 standards. The handheld’s active UHF RFID reader consists of a Radiocrafts RC1280 transceiver module. A basic Milestone costs 350 euros, and the Milestone used for this test version of the bus costs 500 euros.
Visually Impaired Personal Assistant – Handheld Milestone
“Blind people crave independent, free movement. The important thing is they don’t want 20 or so gadgets on their belts that look like cowboys with guns,” said Bones managing director Stephan Knecht.
The system includes two components, active RFID and passive RFID. Users approach a sign with bus routes and wave their Milestone device. The sign contains a passive 13.56 MHz RFID tag containing information on buses passing through the station. The Milestone device then reads the information aloud to the user.
When a bus approaches the platform, an active UHF RFID transceiver on the bus notifies Milestone, which informs the user of the arrival of a vehicle, provides the bus’s route, and asks the user if they need to take the bus; if so , the user presses a button on the Milestone device, and the system sends a message to the driver, informing them that there is a blind person to ride at the site. PAVIP can also tell users when the next bus will arrive, but since the bus stops of the St. Gallen bus system do not provide real-time arrival information of vehicles, this test did not test this function.
According to Knecht, Bones chose RFID because RFID technology is easy to install, inexpensive, tamper-proof and stores information.
Currently, all 70 buses in St. Gallen are equipped with active UHF RFID modules; 260 bus stops in the city are equipped with a passive HF RFID tag.
The PAVIP active RFID transceiver uses a patented protocol and transmits at 868 MHz.
“We think that RFID technology can greatly help blind people,” Ralf Eigenmann said. “The new system does not require any maintenance costs. We just introduce RFID chips and technology into the vehicle. If we build new stations, we will put the tags directly on the signs. superior”
In addition to applications at bus stops, Milestone devices have multiple uses. Users can paste passive high-frequency RFID tags on medicine bottles or other items, and record the items attached to the tags, such as doctor’s orders. When the reader scans the tag, the device plays the recording.
Milestone also includes an SD memory card slot for storing audiobooks and more. Milestone went public last year and now has 3,000 – 4,000 users worldwide.
[ad_2]
