ANDROID APP FOR A GPS SYSTEM FOR VISUALLY IMPARIED AND TOURIST

Addis ababa UNIVERSITYADDIS ABABA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYSchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering

SEMESTER Project ProposalGPS Based Information System for The Visually Impaired

By: ABENEZER ALEMAYEHU ETR/2486/03 Computer Stream ANDUALEM HAILU ETR/2466/03 Communication

Advisors Name: Getachew Teshome

November, 2014

Table of Contents1.Abstract32.Statement of the problem43.Objective54.Motivation65.Introduction and background76.Resources required107.Cost breakdown118.Thesis plan (time schedule)129.References13

1. AbstractThis thesis is supposed to help the visually impaired to navigate easily using a GPS on GPS supported devices especially on Android smart phones. It provides a voice message that tells them what they want to hear. That includes location of hospitals, bus stops, taxi stations, train stations, cafes, restaurants, and so on.The thesis is based on an information server concept, which has user-centered and task oriented approach for solving informational needs of special user groups. Information server with user interface acts as an interpreter between the user and different information databases.Keywords: Global Positioning System (GPS), Visually Impaired

2. Statement of the problemUsually visually impaired people face difficulties to travel alone. They always need someone to assist them on their way especially on places they are not familiar. They face difficulties in most of their day to day activities. They cant take transport services by themselves, they cant access health services unless guided by someone else, and they cant have the pleasure of dining in a hotel if they dont know the place exactly, they cannot go to their work places, schools, colleges and so on alone. For instance, if we examine the problems a visually impaired person faces when using public transport, we recognize the following list: finding a station finding an entrance to the station navigating inside the station finding the right platform and waiting place knowing when the right vehicle arrives finding a vehicle entrance depart on the right stop finding the destinationThese are few of the many difficulties a visually impaired person faces in his/her life. Other problems are that there are not enough materials written in braille, the language a visually impaired people use to read, hence, it is not easy for them to get new and enough information as sighted people do.

3. Objective

The objective of this project is to develop an android application that assists the visually impaired on their day to day activities using a GPS based information system. Our main goal in developing this app is that the visually impaired people no longer need to rely on others (they still might need some assistance but this will decrease their dependence on others) to move freely from place to place and that they can be able to navigate easily places they dont already know. They can easily pick a transport service, they can easily go to health stations, and they can easily go to their work places, schools and wherever they want or need to go.

At the end of this application, we tend to provide the following results for the visually impaired people: They can know where their exact position is. They can know shortest path to take them to some location using train, bus or taxi. They can find the nearest health stations.

4. MotivationThe motivation for this thesis is our deepest interest in helping people to navigate the beautiful and great city of Addis Ababa.The visually impaired people are disadvantaged in navigating for transport stations, navigating for a health station and we want to help them.

5. Introduction and background

This project is an android application that tells a persons location using GPS and helps in navigating through the city of Addis Ababa. As a precondition the person must have an android smartphone. The project is subdivided into two parts. The first part is for a visually impaired person and the second is for a tourist. For the visually impaired the location are told with voicesThe visually impaired commonly rely on a stick or a guide person to assist them in efficiently reaching a desired destination without any harm. However this approach is successful if the path taken is already known to the affected person or the guide.This application lets the visually impaired walk or travel through the city easily with a little assistance. The application for the visually impaired person will start by telling the current location they are at by voice and asks the user what he/she want to do next. Since they cannot text what they want, the app will tell them to press the numbered key for different service. If the user chooses to press 1 to know the next locations, the system will retrieve the nearest locations that can be traveled from the current location, and again asks the user to press the assigned key for each locations. Once the user presses the assigned key for a location he wants to go, the system will calculate the shortest path to that specific location and tells the user the path. The system will also tell the user the nearest taxi or train station.When the app started and the current location is told, if the user had chosen to press 2, the system will tell the user health stations in the area of the current location. The system will ask which health station specifically the user wants and the user answers by pressing the assigned key for the health station he/she wants to go. As mentioned for the next location case the system will calculate the shortest path to that specific location and tells the user the path. The same goes for the Hotels and Restaurants case.For instance, after the app tells their current location it will ask them for what service they want by saying, press 1 for destination location, press 2 for health station, press 3 for hotels and so on. Then if the person presses 1 the app will continue by telling the locations they can go from their current location. For example, if he/she is located at 4 kilo and he pressed 1, the app will tell the user to press 1 to go to 6 kilo, press 2 to go to bole, press 3 to go to Mexico and so on, if the user presses 1 the app will calculate the shortest path to 6 kilo and tells the user the result.

The App Starts

Tell the user the current location

Ask what the user wants to do next.Prompt the user to enter their choice of action by saying: Press 1 for next locations Press 2 for health stations Press 3 for Hotels and restaurants Press 0 to quit

Tell Hotels and restaurants around your current location are as follows.Prompt the user to enter their choice of action by saying: Press 1 to go to Hotel1 Press 2 to go to Hotel2 Press 3 to go to Caf and Restaurant1 . . . Press 0 to quit

3 pressedButtons Pressed

0 pressedTell Health stations around your current location are as follows.Prompt the user to enter their choice of action by saying: Press 1 to go to HS1 Press 2 to go to HS2 Press 3 to go to HS3 . . . Press 0 to quit

1 pressed2 pressedTell The location you can go from current location are as follows.Prompt the user to enter their choice of action by saying: Press 1 to go to location1 Press 2 to go to location2 Press 3 to go to location3 . . . Press 0 to quit

Buttons Pressed

1/2/3 pressed0 pressedCalculate the shortest path to the chosen location from current location and tell the user the where the nearest taxi and train stations are located

End

End

Exit the System

Fig 1: sample google map for the visually impaired person with pin point on the current place

6. Resources required

Books Android mobile Operating system books Video tutorial on android The map of Addis Ababa Test equipment Android phoneDevelopment systems Eclipse for android Java development kit (JDK) My SQL Server Android packages Google map Google satellite

7. Cost breakdown

ComponentQuantityPrice in birr

Android phone12000

Transportation-1000

Total cost 3000 birr

8. Thesis plan (time schedule)

PlanWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6Week 7Week 8Week 9Week 10

Designing the system XX

Project Initial tasks Finding and installing necessary software

X

Designing databaseXXXX

Learning tutorials On AndroidXXXX

Designing the user interface of the applicationXXXX

Since Android is a new language for us, we will spend most of our time on learning tutorials on it. The schedule is subjected to change depending on the work load. Week 1 starts on Monday November 17, 2014.

9. References

Google map www.android.com www.google.com.et google search on GPS Google satellite Addis Ababa city map

12