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Device launched to make BEST commute easier for visually-challenged

In Mumbai, the trials have been done on route numbers 121 and 134, wherein more than 100 visually-challenged individuals did 120 supervised boardings in the first phase.

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The device tells a visually-challenged commuter the numbers of buses in the vicinity.
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A device to simplify travel for visually-challenged commuters in BEST buses was launched at the Electric House, Colaba, on Friday, April 17. The project, called OnBoard, is a joint effort by IIT Delhi, Mumbai First, Sightsavers, Xavier’s Resource Centre for Visually Challenged (XRCVC) and BEST Undertaking.

Speaking with iamin, Prof M Balakrishnan, department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Delhi, who played an instrumental role in the research on this project added that the project's research started with a small team of four people. “Research showed that problems faced by visually-challenged commuters included finding the right bus route numbers and the exact location of the bus entrance within the 30-metre long bus stop,” said Prof Balakrishnan.

The device has two parts: one is attached to the bus and has a speaker, and the other is with the visually-challenged commuter. When the commuter wants to board a bus, he presses a button on his device after which the numbers of buses nearby are announced. If any of the buses are of interest to the user, the user should press the select button after which the device attached to the bus sends radio signals to the driver that a passenger awaits at a particular bus stop. Once the bus approaches the concerned bus stop, the speaker of the device in the bus announces the bus number repetitively to successfully lead the passenger to the bus, while a beeping sound helps the commuter find the seat reserved for him.

In Mumbai, the trials have been done on route numbers 121 and 134, wherein more than 100 visually-challenged individuals did 120 supervised boardings in the first phase. In the second phase, nearly 20 visually impaired people conducted about 350 unsupervised boardings. Trials were completed in October 2014.

Shishir Joshi of Mumbai first, Sam Taraporewala of  XRCVC, were present at the launch event too. Jagdish Patil, general manager, BEST, offered his full support to the endeavour and encouraged the research team to make this project a city-wide phenomenon.

Test users Kiran Pandit and Deepak Jaiswal recounted their experiences of this system. "I have been a bus user for almost eight years. Often, buses would come and by the time I would ask fellow commuters which bus number it was, it would be gone. This system allows us to travel independently and I am honoured to be a part of its trial process,” Pandit said. Jaiswal too echoed Pandit's words.

For the longer version of the report, click here

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