NEW DELHI: To assist visually-impaired passengers, a new technology solution “OnBoard” has been developed by technology company Continental along with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi and non-profit technology start-up Raised Lines Foundation (RLF).
With the help of “On board” technology, a visually-impaired person can independently board a public bus. According to the developers, this technology will help the visually impaired passenger to identify the route number of the bus and identify the location of the door of the bus using an audio cue generated by a speaker on the bus.
Explaining its method of functioning, the developers said that the “Onboard” technology consists of three separate units bus unit, user device and programming and diagnostic unit. The bus unit contains a controller and speaker and is connected to the electrical system in the bus, while a user device allows users to query all bus numbers in the vicinity and select the desired bus for the audio response.
While the third unit, the “ programming and diagnostic unit” installed at the bus depot helps program a set of numbers in a bus device from which the driver can select the specific route number the bus is operating on. This device also helps in diagnostics.