GPS Systems for Travelers with Visual Impairment: Who, What, Where, Why, and How

1. Global Positioning Systems and the Traveler with a Visual Impairment:"Who?" "What?" "Where?" "Why?" and "How?" Craig L. Phillips MS Ed. COMS

2. Kansas City Locations

3. Berthold Lowenfeld Blindness imposes the following limitations: • In the range and variety of experiences • In the ability to get about • In the control of the environment and the self in relation to it. (1948)

4. Ehresman’sTheory of Relativity “You are only as independent as your relatives Allow you to be.” Paul Ehresman

5. The Law Educating Blind and Visually Impaired Students Federal Register: June 8, 2000. Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities and Preschool Grants for Children With Disabilities Federal Register: August 14, 2006.

6. Data > Opinion

7. Preparation for GPS • Positional concepts • Compass orientation • Landmarks • Context Clues • Visual Maps • Tactile maps • Wheatley • Tactile Town • Swell paper • Collage/Braillon

8. Global Positioning System 101 • First GPS satellite was launched in 1978 • Built to last about 10 years • Weigh approximately 2,000 pounds • 17 feet across with solar panels

9. Global Positioning System 101 • Satellites orbit 12,000 miles above Earth • 24 satellites constantly moving • Two complete orbits in less than 24 hours • Travelling at speeds of roughly 7,000 miles an hour

10. Global Positioning System 101

11. Global Positioning System 101 • Accuracy resolution +/- 50 feet • Any weather conditions • Anywhere in the world • No subscription fees or setup charges to access GPS • 24 hours a day

12. Global Positioning System 101 Signals travel by line of sight Can go through clouds, glass, and plastic Cannot go through most solid objects such as buildings and mountains

13. Triangulation Three (3) satellites to calculate • a 2D position (latitude and longitude) • and track movement Four (4) or more satellites to calculate • a 3D position (latitude, longitude, and altitude) • and track movement

14. Triangulation

15. Student Considerations • Interest • Perceived utility • Maturity > Age • Cognitive ability • Dexterity • Route concept • Stamina • Techiness is useful, but not essential

16. Ten Essential Features • Turn by turn, block by block route directions • Announces position in space and direction of travel before and after each route segment • Upcoming intersection type and roundabouts automatically announced

17. Ten Essential Features • Pedestrian routes created for distance • Motorized routes created for time • Built in pedometer • Off route detection and route correction within a city block

18. Ten Essential Features • What’s Around *near < 500 feet *far > 500 feet • Automatically announces POIs, landmarks, and POIs in pedestrian mode • Automatically announces landmarks and waypoints in motorized mode

19. DeviceConsiderations “The difficulty or simplicity of learning how to use a system must work for the student first and the teacher second.” Mike May It’s not about you… It’s not about you… It’s not about you…

20. Devices • BrailleNote Apex • SenderoTrekker Breeze • Seeing Eye GPS™ App • Garmin Oregon 450

21. BrailleNote Apex/Sendero

22. BrailleNote Apex/Sendero • Primary and secondary voice • Refreshable Braille display • Bluetooth receiver • Tom Tom maps • Humanware/Sendero • $5495 + 599.00

23. Trekker Maestro DISCONTINUED

24. Trekker Breeze

25. Trekker Breeze • Large, distinctive buttons • Built-in GPS receiver and speaker • Secondary external speaker • Navteq-Here maps • Six hours of rechargeable battery life • Humanware • $699

26. Seeing Eye GPS™ App

27. Seeing Eye GPS™ App • Buttons for POIs, location, and routes on lower portion of every screen • Two choices for map data • Foursquare • Tom Tom

28. Seeing Eye GPS™ App • Searches surrounding near area by pointing phone • Sendero • Thirty Day Subscription $9.99 • Three Year Subscription $129.99 • One Year Subscription $69.99

29. Garmin Oregon 450

30. Garmin Oregon 450 • Color 3 inch diagonal touch screen • WAAS-enabled receiver - 10-20 feet resolution • Electronic compass • Navteq - Here maps • MicroSD™ card slot for additional maps • Amazon-REI-Ebay • $200-300

31. Four Stages of Learning • Unconsciously Incompetent • Consciously Incompetent • Consciously Competent • Unconsciously Competent

32. Begin at the Beginning… • Start with the component parts • Assemble/Disassemble • Orient to the device • Use the key describer mode • Talk About GPS limits/parameters • Movement versus static position

33. Begin at the Beginning… • Start with the familiar • Then walk, listen, and reference • Learn the language • Repeat the message • What is the information? • Where is it provided?

34. I Say Tomato… What it is… What it sounds like… Minneysotaa Ahlith Leneexaah Believeyou Pannerra Chipitil Rossahill Beelinedeer P F L U M M • Minnesota • Olathe • Lenexa • Belleview • Panera • Chipotle • Rosehill • Belinder • Pflumm

35. Mapping Street Open Area

36. Mapping Street Ordered Grid Circular Numerical referents East - West North - South Odds - Evens Ascending - Descending POIs, Landmarks, and Waypoints

37. Mapping Amorphous +/- 50 feet from the street Directions by clockface “as the crow flies…” Parks, parking lots, playgrounds, beaches, campgrounds, college campuses Landmarks and waypoints Open Area

38. Mapping Street Open Area *Cannot connect unless a route has been created between the two areas.

39. Landmarks/Waypoints • User created • Multiple landmarks can be set at the same time/same spot. • Know where you are • Always set a landmark at the beginning of any journey. Always….

40. Landmarks/Waypoints • Pair with physical reference points • Label noun first, then adjective • “Smith High School, east door” • “Fraser Hall, front stairs” • Address entry results

41. Landmarks/Waypoints • Nurture environmental literacy. • Develop the gestalt of the area. • Set waypoints before and after hazards, headaches, and irritations. • Practice renaming, deleting, and unsetting as a destination.

42. Point of Interest = POI • Point of Interest = Common locations • Preset on Maps • Use POI rich environments to begin instruction to demonstrate utility.

43. Point of Interest = POI • Where is the “spot?”

44. The Virtual Open Doorway • Incidental information results in incidental learning and control • Part to whole scheme • Environmental literacy

45. Routing Modes • Pedestrian • Distance parameters • Motorized • Time parameters

46. Routing Reliability • Self-created routes • Landmarks and Waypoints • POIs • Address Entry

47. Sources of GPS Error • Signal slows as it passes through the atmosphere • Number of satellites visible, terrain, electronic interference, or sometimes even dense foliage can block signal reception

48. Sources of GPS Error • Signal multipath occurs when the GPS signal is reflected off objects such as tall buildings or large rock surfaces before it reaches the receiver, i. e. “the Canyon Effect.”

49. Problem Solving • Always warm up the device. • Use the Resets • Position and Device • Routing Hiccups “No GPS coverage” “Turn back” “Off route”

50. Wisdom “I have found over the years that the teaching of Orientation and Mobility is an art of accepting approximations.” Dr. William Penrod