Design team members: Peter Cresswell and Liz Parry
Supervisor: Prof Eric Kubica
Background
The University of Waterloo is a large institute located in southern Ontario that serves its student population, local community and the larger community of North America through educational enrichment, technological and social advancements, and technical and professional skill training. This community is a diverse collection of individuals with a wide range of needs that must be taken into account when considering how the university provides its services.
For those that are visually impaired, University of Waterloo is a much different environment than for those who have vision. How the university delivers services to these students is of concern since it is the goal of the university to meet the needs of all of it community members. A quick survey of how University of Waterloo serves these students reveals a number of shortcomings.
One of the largest obstacles for a visually impaired person is personal navigation. As University of Waterloo is a large campus, the ability to quickly and accurately navigate the campus is important. Without it, attending lectures becomes quite challenging. University of Waterloo has a responsibility to provide enough resources to ensure that the visually impaired can navigate the campus proficiently. However, as the university has a large student population, the services that it provides are quite regimented. For example, it provides service to its students through lectures that begin at a set period of time and terminate at a set time.
At University of Waterloo, the Office for Services for Students with Disabilities serves as the contact point for students seeking assistance with their disability. Currently, to address the need of navigating the campus, the student access van can transport students from one point on campus to another. Accessing some parts of the campus is difficult and using the van is an awkward process for daily transportation. Students can also arrange for rides with a local cab company if the van is unavailable, but this does not assist with on-campus navigation. Beyond the access van, there are signs on campus designed to assist students in navigating the campus. These signs are purely visual and serve little purpose to those that are visually impaired. Thus, University of Waterloo currently has an awkward solution to the problem of assisting those that are visually impaired in navigating the campus.
Beyond the University of Waterloo, there are a number of existing technologies that a person with a visual impairment may acquire. For example, The Columbus Talking Compass by Robotron Pty. Limited is a handheld device that indicates the direction the user is facing through speech. Such a device would be of no assistance to a user without a sense of geographical direction.
The world of handheld navigational tools is a limited and often highly focused one. The development of a scalable and effective handheld device is currently in need. The proposed project attempts to address the navigational needs of the visually impaired in a simple and effective fashion.
Project description
The handheld device to be designed will involve the use of various types of technology such as the Palm OS and the Marcosoft Global Positioning System (GPS) unit. Using these two devices, a shortest path algorithm and a detailed map of the University of Waterloo campus, the device will be able to accept user inputs in the form of button commands or pen strokes and will output directions to the input user destination. Using the GPS as the source of data for current position, the device will also maintain the user on course through corrective feedback signals in the form of audio noise.
Design methodology
The spiral design process will be used as the design methodology for this project. The spiral design begins with building a set of basic requirements followed by the construction of a small prototype, evaluating the prototype and then repeating the process until the final design meets the needs of the users as effectively as possible. The stages of the spiral design are described below.
2.1
Basic
requirements
The
basic
requirements
involve
collecting
a
list
of
needs
that
users
identify
and
then
translating
these
needs
into
product
requirements.
The
target
user
is
a
visually
impaired
person
and
hence
most
requirements
will
be
generated
based
on
the
input
of
these
users.
Data
will
be
collected
primarily
from
the
visually
impaired
community
at
the
University
of
Waterloo
with
additional
data
being
collected
from
other
non-visually
impaired
community
members.
2.2
Small
prototyping
The
prototype
stage
involves
developing
a
prototype
that
reasonably
represents
the
product
being
designed.
The
construction
of
the
prototype
becomes
progressively
more
involved.
The
initial
prototype
will
be
a
simple
construction
requiring
little
technical
development,
while
the
final
prototype
will
represent
the
final
product
design.
2.3
Prototype
testing
The
prototype
easily
serves
as
a
tool
for
identifying
how
closely
user
needs
and
product
requirements
are
met
by
the
design.
Testing
will
involve
using
the
prototype
in
a
typical
application
by
both
visually
impaired
and
non-visually
impaired
people.
The
results
of
testing
will
motivate
further
iterations
of
the
design
cycle.