BlueEyes RATP experiment
Navigation aide in complex urban environments
Worksheet
Client :
RATP
Indoor geolocation makes it possible to solve mobility issues for visually impaired people and for people with disabilities.
Being a major player in public transportation, RATP wanted to improve disabled commuters experience. This approach led to a prototype experiment of faberNovel’s indoor navigation tool: BlueEyes®.
faberNovel’s work
faberNovel developed an indoor navigation tool solving RATP’s needs while providing an alternate solution to indoor GPS solutions.
BlueEyes® is a dynamic navigation tool for complex urban environments. It allows the user to see information of their location and the correct itinerary on their mobile phone, similar to a GPS device.
The proprietary solution can be customized to fit the needs and the constraints of any environment (ability to replace Bluetooth with Wifi, flow management).
The BlueEyes® platform includes:
- an administration interface
- a server storing mapping-related data, usage data, and maintenance data
- a navigation software bundled with the mobile app for interpreting a local database where navigation instructions are stored
- a set of antennas and a communication module between antennas and the user’s mobile app
- a graphic interface allowing the user to access navigation information via a native mobile app
Results
A prototype was tested in 2006 with RATP. In 2009, tests were made to check the scalability of the project. Test users (visually impaired or not) gave very positive feedback in both cases, leading to a network-wide adoption of BlueEyes®.
Given the positive results, RATP asked STIF for authorization and some financial aid to deploy BlueEyes® in each subway station and RER train station.
Today, the BlueEyes® solution is fully-fledged and operational. Both the platform and the graphic interface are proprietary. The graphic interface, designed and developed by faberNovel, can be customized to fit different use cases, such as indoor navigation, local information, augmented reality, and more.
