Standards and Spatial Data Infrastructures to help the navigation of blind pedestrian in urban areas

The development of appropriate assistive technology for the blind in their activities of navigation requires the definition of a suitable Spatial Data Infrastructure. The aim of this paper is to propose a cognitively informed approach that ensures defining an SDI dedicated to improve situation awareness of the blind pedestrian in urban areas. We focus on three components of SDI: Standards, Data and People. The cognitive design approach that we propose allows the matching of key cognitive principles for navigation by the blind to choices of standards and data structuring. Thereby, we propose a semantic upper layer model which contains useful spatial data for navigation by the blind. These data are hierarchically structured by adopting a combination of two concepts; ‘Influence areas’ and ‘Perceptual regions’. This semantic layer will be integrated to the standard ISO 19133:2005 developed for location-based services by extending this standard to meet the needs of blind pedestrians. Urban and Regional Data Management – Krek, Rumor, Zlatanova & Fendel (eds) © 2009 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-55642-2

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