Consortium Develops GPS App for the Visually Impaired
Navigating a busy airport or bus terminal can be a challenging proposition for anyone who is blind or visually impaired. Enter ASSIST, an app for indoor navigation in development by a City College of New York-led consortium. The ASSIST app is part of the SAT-Hub project, which has received a boost from a $750,000 three-year grant from the Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program at the National Science Foundation.
This brings to $850,000 the NSF’s support for the app’s development. Last year, the foundation awarded City College a $100,000 Smart & Connected Community (SCC) planning grant.
In addition, Bentley Systems, Inc., a software development company and the primary industrial partner on the SAT-Hub project, is providing an additional $75,000 over three years in industrial support.
SAT-Hub stands for “Smart and Accessible Transportation Hub”. The acronym for “Assistive Sensor Solutions for Independent and Safe Travel,” ASSIST will provide GPS-type assistance to users ranging from the blind or visually impaired to autistic and disabled people.
“It will help them navigate large public transportation hubs such as airports and bus stations which can be very complicated for the visually impaired or autistic,” said Zhigang Zhu, Herbert [...]