jtd wrote:
If u have guide railings and the user walks up to that point all problems are resolved. U have location, orientation and distance. The beacon can transmit proper info at the additional cost of having several rails and beacons -eg 7 at prabhadevi signal. Also now they cannot be used at a distance.
The guide railings are meant to differentiate between road and foot path safety limits and have the additional facility of instructions emobssed on them. The guide rail does not bring the user to his destination, it only guides till the footpath ends and the user has to now decide which direction he needs to take for what destination. This choice will be fed to him by the electronic system. Once the choice is made, he crosses the road and moves on to the next railing. All information may be difficult to punch into a railing and the user will have to feel a very long way to read everything.
A simple alternative option of providing user orientation to the signpost can be to incorporate buttons in the railings that the user will press as he reaches the end of the footpath. This will provide accurate information about the user without using heavy technology. The signpost will then broadcast information to the user's device.
The problem here is that how does the post identify the device to which it has to broadcast? There can be a system of temporarily docking the user's unit into the railing port with optical proximity like a bar code reader. So while the rails act as sensors, the signpost is only one common transmitter connected to a common computer.
So here is a practical example.
A user is slowly walking along the road from Sah and Sanghi auto shop towards Prabhadevi Junction, feeling his way on a railing. As he approaches the Century Bazar signal, the railing tells him that a junction is approaching. Just before the junction, the user momentarily docks his device into the railing port and removes it. The radio signpost then tells him about his bearings and what directions he can take to what destination. The user wants to go to Ceat house which is a few buildings away from Century Bazar. So the post instructs him to take the immediate left signal, cross the road and take the next railing to his right. As the user feels his way ahead, he reaches Ceat Building. The building names of popular buildings could be embossed into the railing.
Regards,
Rony.
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