The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and Office of Extraordinary Innovation (OEI) have decided to execute a proof of concept to test an innovative audio wayfinding technology at Union Station.
L.A. Metro says navigating through Union Station can prove challenging to even the most resourceful traveler, let alone somebody who is blind or visually impaired. While sighted travelers rely on signage and visual cues, blind and partially sighted people often seek tactile pathways to guide them. Given that installing tactile pathways at Union Station is challenging due to the historic landmark status of the station, L.A. Metro said it was open to alternative wayfinding solutions.
Last year, NaviLens submitted an unsolicited proposal to test an innovative, audio wayfinding technology via L.A. Metro’s Unsolicited Proposal (UP) process. The UP process unlocks innovation by allowing outside parties to submit concepts to L.A. Metro.
Review teams from across the agency evaluate the proposal, and if they determine there is financial and/or technical merit, the proposal moves forward. The UP process often leads to small scale pilots or proofs of concept so Metro can test concepts and emerging technologies. In this case, OEI and OCR reviewed the NaviLens technology and decided the proposal merited a proof of concept.
NaviLens was developed through a partnership between Mobile Vision Research Lab at the University of Alicante in Spain and the Spanish startup Neosistic. The technology consists of a set of colored pixelated tags (similar to QR codes) and an accompanying smartphone app. A user’s smartphone camera scans the surroundings for tags while the app recites the tag’s stored information. Each tag is strategically placed and individually programmed with wayfinding information, including distance and direction to platforms, transit arrival and departure information, and ticket kiosks and restroom locations. L.A. Metro says the technology can read a five-inch tag from up to 39 feet away in a 30th of a second while the camera is in motion and without focusing.
This past October, L.A. Metro began testing NaviLens in Union Station. Tags were placed throughout Union Station, creating audio pathways to the B (Red), D (Purple) and L (Gold) Line platforms, Amtrak and Metrolink platforms, Patsaouras Bus Plaza, and identifying ticket vending machines, fare gates, elevators and emergency telephones. The pilot team included multiple L.A. Metro departments and other partners including OEI, OCR, L.A. Metro’s Accessibility Advisory Committee (AAC), L.A. Metro’s General Services, Morlin Property Management, Amalgamated Transit Union and the British Royal National Institute of Blind People.
Throughout the pilot, L.A. Metro says NaviLens has been praised by blind and visually impaired test users.
“I would feel more comfortable traveling by myself if this was available everywhere” and “This feels similar to what sighted people can do, being able to see signage” were some of the comments L.A. Metro says it received from the test group.
The NaviLens technology is currently deployed at bus stops and metro stations of the Barcelona and Madrid transit systems, has been endorsed by the Britain’s Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and was recently studied as part of New York City Transit's Accessible Station Lab pilot, according to L.A. Metro.
This isn’t the first wayfinding technology for blind and visually impaired people that L.A. Metro has piloted. Last spring, OCR conducted a pilot with Wayfindr, an audio navigation technology which pairs Bluetooth Low Energy beacons with a smartphone app. As assistive technologies continue to evolve, L.A. Metro welcomes the development of aids that improve the autonomy of blind and visually impaired travelers in Union Station.
