Gabriel DeRuwe

and

Dr. Richard Wall

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Pedestrian Navigation and Integration Pedestrian Navigation and Integration with with

Distributed Smart Signals Traffic ControlsDistributed Smart Signals Traffic Controls

Presentation Outline• Infrastructure issues • Problem statement• Required infrastructure

modifications• Solution research• Testing results

04/21/23 IECON 08 2

• What is it: – A handheld device for activation of pedestrian calls– Provides orientation and guidance information to user while in

intersection– Interacts with traffic controller to protect user

• Why is it needed:– 4.3 million Americans are severely visually impaired – Incidence increases with age– By 2010, expect there to be 20 million visually impaired persons

over age 45

10/30/2008 IECON 08 3

• Infrastructure Problems: impediments for vision and mobility impaired

04/21/23 IECON 08 4

Inaccessible Pedestrian Button-Difficult to find

Unusual intersection geometries-Difficult to know if you’ve gone off course

Infrastructure Problems: ergonomics

04/21/23 IECON 08 5

Difficult to re-orient after pushing the button

Difficult to observe pedestrian signals-Difficult to know when to cross

•Eliminate need for finding the Pedestrian Call Button

•Inform the intersection where the user wishes to cross

•Provide the user with the state of the Pedestrian Signals

04/21/23 IECON 08 6

Track user in the cross walk• Provide navigational cues to the user• Extend walk time to ensure that the user reaches their

destination

04/21/23 IECON 08 7

• Ethernet Distributed control• Uses NTCIP MIB objects• Safety Critical Network based upon IEEE

1588 PTP• Utilizes 200MB Ethernet over power line for

field wiring– Uses existing infrastructure and wiring

04/21/23 IECON 08 8

-Ped Controller

Communicates

with TC

- Ped Controller

Communicates

with Ped Buttons

- Ped Button

Communicates

with remote device

04/21/23 IECON 08 9

04/21/23 IECON 08 10

Pedestrian Call

Control Network

NTCIP based communication

-Encrypted Ethernet over Power line Communications (BPL)-

Information Flow Diagram• 220 ms network update

04/21/23 11IECON 08

Less than 1.5 in by 3.5 in Operate 5 days on a 9V

battery Electronic compass Standard GPS Standard radio modem (IEEE

802.15.4)

Hardware costs less than $250

Nokia 6210 NavigatorExisting hardwareMagnetic CompassGPSBluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1)Software APIs

04/21/23 IECON 08 12

04/21/23 13IECON 08

• Pedestrian call placed

• Pedestrian signal information displayed on phone

• Red for solid hand

• Green for walk symbol

• Yellow for flashing hand

•Green – Crosswalk

•Yellow – Immediately outside of crosswalk

•Red – Danger zone

04/21/23 IECON 08 14

04/21/23 15IECON 08

• Slow LED blink in “green” region

• Rapid LED blink outside of “green” region

• Returns to slow LED blink rate when user returns to “green” region

• LED off when user reaches destination

•20 trials of walking 24 feet in a straight line•Black lines indicate the edges of a cross walk (8 ft.)•All of the trials tracked the user within the cross walk

04/21/23 IECON 08 16

•User travel waypoints:

• (7, 20) ft North, East

• (0, 40) ft North, East

•25 Trials• Average < 4ft off

at destination

04/21/23 IECON 08 17

•Research continues on methods for assisting at risk pedestrians in safely crossing signalized intersections•Technology is promising but not reliable•Nokia cell phone integrates navigational and orientation with communications•Infrastructure is needed to enable this technology

04/21/23 IECON 08 18