Homing Device for Kit - Is it possible?

Former Member over 8 years ago

Hi guys, a local team of volunteers here in NZ, is looking at using a Garmin watch, maybe a forerunner 230 (with sensitive GPS), to develop a navigation application for a blind person, Kit. Also, possibly for more general use for the visually impaired. Kit likes swimming in the sea, but has difficulty finding his way up the beach back to the entrance of a track that leads to his house. So we are considering using a watch to help him navigate, initially via GPS and magnetometer (so that he can orient in the right direction), then using BLE location beacons for the last part of the journey (as it needs higher accuracy than GPS to find the start of the track). However we have never programmed a watch before so have some fundamental questions:

- Is there likely to be sufficient rom/ram to implement a program that does location and compass calculations to guide kit between a series of waypoints? Clearly it depends, but it could be quite a complex programming with floating point calculations.
- Would we effectively be able to take over the user interface to use just keys and tactile feedback from the vibrator? Clearly the screen will be useless to Kit, who also has a hearing problem!
- Has anything like this been done already? If so, references and contacts would be really helpful.

Other comments / views on what we are wanting to achieve would be appreciated.
Best wishes, Ron.

geniuswrist over 8 years ago

Hi Ron

The devices have enough memory to do this kind of task, but considering the kind of precision you need I would consider the folowing requirements

The device must have:
- internal magnetic compass
- giroscope
- GPS (of course)
- support for vibration patterns (since he has hearing limitation the capacity to notify using a variety of vibrations is essencial)
- the device must have as much phisical buttons as possible, to allow selection of features just by touch.

This leave only one device option, the Garmin Fenix 3.

None device of the forerunner series has support for vibration patterns,
Only the Fenix has a magnectic compass, 5 buttons (4 usable), and internal giroscope.

It's not possible to programatically control the bluetooth connection so it's imposible to use BLE location beacons, In this case I cannot confirm that the GPS + compass precision will be enouth (I believe it will be).

I cannot help with coding right now. I'm in the midle of a project and with a newbor baby home.

But I will answer as much questions I can.

I also believe this could be an open source project that could put together the effort of various developers.

Cheers,

Robinson

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

For someone that's blind, you might want a device that has tones. One tone means head right, and another head left.. and another means "you are there".

See the SDK Doc:

TONE_ALERT_HI = 4
An alert ending with a high note
Since:
1.0.0
Supported Devices:
All except vivoactive
TONE_ALERT_LO = 5
An alert ending with a low note

for example...

Doing this on a fr235 is very doable. but how do you plan on picking a endpoints? (the lat/lon of where Kit wants to go)?

Former Member over 8 years ago

Homing Device for Kit

Hi Robinson, thanks for your extensive reply and also for your kind offer of support, at least with your, clearly extensive, knowledge. Apart from a gyroscope, your list of requirements is the same as ours, which seems to confirm the thinking. As you indicate, vibration patterns are essential. Unfortunately BLE control is also essential. Particularly parsing beacon advertisements and measuring their RSSI. In a pinch we might get away with a single beacon marking the start of the path. Although it doesn't need to be a 'watch' format, the device needs to be fully waterproof and convenient for swimming. So maybe we need to think again. As it looks like centimeter accuracy GPS on phones and watches will be available within 2 or 3 years it probably isn't worth investing huge effort in something different. If you have any ideas please let me know. (don't know if its possible to switch-on email notifications for the garmin forums, but I didn't get one!). Cheers Ron.

Hi Jim, thanks also for your suggestion. Unfortunately Kit (who is 70) is also deaf without his hearing aids (ironic for an ex sound engineer renown for his work on NZ films).
The proposed navigation method is to enter ordered waypoints in advance. So when Kit gets out of the water, using GPS the watch will calculate a bearing to the first waypoint. Vibration patterns will enable Kit to orientate then start walking, with regular updates for course corrections. Upon approaching the first waypoint the application will switch to the second waypoint and so on until Kit is close to the start of the trail, after which more accurate Bluetooth proximity would kick-in - although we appear to be out of luck with being able to implement the latter with a Garmin device! Best wishes, Ron

geniuswrist over 8 years ago

Hi Ron

i suggested the giroscope cause it can also be a form of input.

For example, if the watch is with the lens facing the floor for 3-4 seconds, enable the "go home feature", the same gesture could disable it

I sent an inbox message for you.

Cheers,

Robinson

Former Member over 8 years ago

Homing device for Kit - gyro

Thanks again Robinson, an excellent point about gyro for gestures. Will also respond via e-mail. Cheers, Ron.