Getting around at airports can get really complicated for blind and unaccompanied travelers: today engineers at Carnegie Mellon University have entered into a collaboration with Pittsburgh International Airport to develop a system to help blind people navigate between locations to the other of the structure.
A "smart" trolley equipped with a video camera and sensors is capable of perceive the environment surroundings, people and objects that could represent possible obstacles. Calculate the best walking routes and evaluate possible collisions reporting them to the user and whoever comes into contact with him.
“People once paid more attention and caution if they passed a blind person,” says Chieko Asakawa, (the name in Italian sounds like a mocking twist of fate) professor at Carnegie Mellon has been blind since the age of 14, who took part to the project.
“Today conditions have changed, the attention rate has significantly decreased and people distracted by smartphones or other visual stimuli can easily bump into us”.
At the trolley-guide it is combined with a special one app to find waiting rooms, restaurants and other outlets of the airport: once you have chosen the destination you trust it suitcase will take care of accompanying the user safely.
