Stay On Trails round table
From prototype to lasting practice. We present the app and its results to the sector and to everyone who embraces inclusive experiences – from open-air museums to nature reserves – and decide together what still needs to be done, and what a follow-up project could look like.
What is it about?
Stay On Trails is a web app that guides blind and visually impaired walkers on unpaved paths in nature, where there are no tactile guide lines. The smartphone camera films the path, AI finds the centre of that path, and the walker hears or feels where to correct their course.
Recognition on a server
The images are sent over mobile internet to a powerful server. An ordinary smartphone is enough, because the heavy computing happens elsewhere. But the app needs good coverage and the images leave the device.
Recognition on the device itself
The same path recognition, but on a small computer that travels along (NVIDIA Jetson Orin), for example on a robot dog. It works without a network, with little delay, and the images stay local – but it requires extra hardware.
Both tracks will be set up side by side that afternoon, so you can compare them and try them out.
Stay On Trails in action
Two short videos as a foretaste. What you see here will be set up live on 17 November.
The research project AI navigation for blind and visually impaired people: what the app does and how it corrects course along the way. Watch on YouTube
The robot dog on Car-Free Sunday The edge version in Asse: path recognition runs on the device itself, without internet. Watch on YouTube
Programme
The app and the results so far
- Inspiration: the Stay On Trails case
- Demo: cloud (website) and edge (Jetson Orin on a robot dog) side by side
- Results: what we have developed and learned, and where the limits lie
Needs and next steps according to the participants
- Co-creation: needs, interest and cognitive load
- Next steps: how do the partners see a possible follow-up project?
- Documentation: recording everything as a basis for funding
Along the way, the ethical and regulatory preconditions will also be discussed: privacy of image data, cloud versus edge, and acceptance by users.
Who is it for?
First and foremost for companies and organisations that welcome visitors on their own paths and want to make that experience accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired, and for the tech companies that can help build such a solution.
- Open-air museums
- Theme parks
- Zoos
- Nature reserves and forests
- Parks and gardens
- Heritage sites
- Walking and recreation areas
- Campuses and care sites
- Municipalities and tourist services
- Tech companies
If you run such a site, you will see what is possible today on paths without tactile guide lines, and help decide what is still needed to make it work on your own grounds.
If you work with computer vision, navigation, wearables or edge hardware yourself, you will see how that technology holds up in practice, where it still falls short, and where there is room for your product or expertise.
It is also for organisations working on accessibility, mobility and well-being, for knowledge institutions, and for people with lived experience and their companions. You do not need any technical background: the demo and the discussion are designed for a mixed audience.
Register
Thank you for your interest. Would you like to be invited to a possible next round table? Send an e-mail to maarten.dequanter@ehb.be.
Who is carrying out this research?
Stay On Trails is a research and pilot project of the Research Centre for Preventive Health Innovation at Erasmushogeschool Brussel, which approaches prevention by integrating technology, behaviour and living environment. Stay On Trails is part of the research line on accessible technology: from lab validation to application in the field, together with users and the sector.
