Projektart: Gefördertes Projekt Transnationales Projekt Wissenschaftliche Arbeit
Projektreihe Ways4all

In the project series "ways4all" four projects with a focus on "navigation for visually impaired and blind people in public transport" are performed under the direction of the University of Applied Science, FH JOANNEUM GmbH, Kapfenberg, degree courses “Energy, Transport and Environmental Management / Energy and Transport Management” and “Internet Technology”. The following 4 projects can be distinguished: ways4all Indoor navigation and routing in public transport based on passive RFID-tags, tactile guidance system and a new own developed routing-method, the so called “Gerwei-Method” and the Dijkstra-logarithm NAVCOM Communication with public transport vehicles constructed on WLAN technology and indoor routing built on inertial navigation. ways4all complete Designing a user interface for visually impaired and blind people, developing outdoor navigation (based on “Open street map” and GPS) and integrating the two previous projects into one overall system for its demonstration project at the new Vienna Central Station. ways4me Combining indoor and outdoor navigation, traffic information systems, communication with public transport modes, ticket purchase and integrating an intuitive user interface. The project series is funded by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) and The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) within the research program “IV2Splus”, programme line “ways2go” which is focused on the movement of persons and is geared towards developing a knowledge base of future mobility and transport issues. The main aim of this program is to demonstrate "barrier-free mobility" at the new Vienna Central Station in 2014 Start of the project series: December 2008 End of the project series: October 2014 The project series "ways4all"is developed in four separate, but related projects. The first project "Ways4all", under the leadership of Martijn Kiers, has developed an innovative indoor navigation solution, based on the tactile guidance system, passive RFID-technology, a new developed routing, the so-called "Gerwei-Method" combined with the Dijkstra-Algorithm and default mobile equipment, like a mobile phone. The second project "NAVCOM", managed by Werner Bischof, revolutionized the communication between the public transport vehicle and the user of the ways4all program by using WLAN, sound effects and text to speech for communication. Furthermore this project uses inertial algorithms, developed by the TU Graz, for finding all targets within the indoor routing, even when no tactile guidance system is available. In the third project "ways4all complete", the main focuses lies on developing a user interface for smart phones by digital Concepts, outdoor routing based on "open street map" and GPS by Salzburg research as well as integrating all existing results from the previous projects into on overall program. This project, led by Elmar Krajnc, allows visually impaired and blind people to travel independently. The developed program enables indoor as well as outdoor routing, communication with the public transport modes along with using touch screen phones by visually impaired and blind people. The fourth project "ways4me", controlled by Werner Bischof, supports people with special needs when they are using public transportation. The project combines the indoor and outdoor navigation, traffic information systems, communication with public transport, the ticket purchase and an intuitive user interface. The result is a barrier-free application for mobile devices for different user groups.