視障者搭乘公車輔具之研發

The Research and Development of Bus Travel Aid for Visual Impairments

王曉嵐(Hsiao-lan Wang)

《愛盲視覺障礙敘說與研究》 2017 (2017/04) Pp. a1+i-iv+1-95

摘要

視障者搭乘公車時面臨許多困難，其中無法辨識車號，及無法辨別同時到站的數輛公車是最常見的問題。目前視障者解決問題的方法是請求路人協助，或手持自製車號牌引起公車駕駛注意。上述方法不僅缺乏效率而且麻煩。此外視障者也常因為看不清楚公車號碼而錯失乘車時機。因此視障者亟需更好的方法，以解決搭公車面臨的問題，進一步提升視障者的生活品質。本研究採用雙向無線通訊技術研發視障者搭公車之輔具。當等車乘客在手持式使用者收發器上按下欲搭乘的車號，透過無線傳輸廣播車號訊息。收到車號的公車收發器會判讀訊息，再將相符訊息藉由無線傳輸至使用者收發器，兩收發器的警示裝置在收到相符訊息後立即啟動，以提醒公車駕駛與等車乘客。2 名視障個案參與本研發輔具三階段實驗。實驗結果顯示使用本輔具可減少視障者錯失乘車與搭錯車的次數。三階段實驗中，系統雙向無線通訊最遠距離的平均值分別為：階段一為7.33 公尺、階段二為28.33 與 30 公尺、階段三為10 與 16.67 公尺。無線通訊距離除了受天氣及週遭環境影響外，階段三無線通訊距離較階段二短，可能與公車車窗未開啟、公車收發器擺放位置、及兩收發器天線擺放位置是否皆垂直地面有關。因此未來研究首要加強系統無線通訊的穩定性，並擴大使用者範圍，如肢體障礙等其他類別的身心障礙者，以增進搭公車的效率與獨立性。

關鍵字

視障者 ； 射頻無線電 ； 無線收發模組 ； 無線電

並列摘要

Bus travel presents many difficulties for visually impaired persons. Among them, the most problems are to identify of the route number of an approaching bus and to identify the wanted bus in a series of buses lined up at the stop. At present, the visual impaired usually rely on the assistance from people around or hold a big cardboard with the bus number to get bus drivers' attention. These methods are inefficient, passive, and tiring. In addition, very often they can miss their buses. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to develop a new bus travel aid to improve the independence of bus taking and thus the quality of life for the visual impairments. This method was realized by two-way radio frequency (RF) communication. Bus users punched in the wanted bus number in a hand held user module which then broadcasted message out. When a RF bus module near a bus driver reached the broadcasting rang, it would check the message. If the received message matched its own bus number and destination, the RF bus module would inform the driver and send a acknowledge message back to the user module which then inform the user. Two visually impaired participants examined the effectiveness of the bus travel aid in three phases. Subjects took simulated buses in Yang Ming campus during phase I and II, then they took real buses on the street in phase III. Each of this two modules added antennas after phase I. The results indicated that using this aid could reduce missing bus and taking incorrect bus of the visual impairments. The mean of the communicating distance of the two modules was 7.33 meters in phase I, 28.33 and 30 meters in phase II, 10 and 16.67 meters in phase III. The communicating distance of the two modules had been influenced by the weather and surroundings, which increased in phase II but decreased in phase III might be due to the closed windows of the buses, the locations of the bus module and the vertical angles with the ground of the antennas. Further research should improve the stability of this system to assist different kinds of the disability to take buses independently and efficiently.

並列關鍵字

visual impairment ； radio frequency ； RF module ； wireless