The Elios Lab's Lodestar project aims to enhance the experience of visually impaired individuals in cultural and naturalistic locations through a toolkit for mobile application development that includes proximity awareness features. This toolkit allows for the creation of multimedia applications that integrate various content types, such as audio descriptions and spatial information, accessible to users via simple controls. The project has yielded real-world applications, including tour guides and gaming experiences, with positive feedback from experimental users.

1. ELIOS Lab
LodeStar: a mobile device to enhance visually impaired
people experience of cultural and naturalistic places
F. Bellotti, R. Berta, A. De Gloria, M. Margarone
DIBE – Department of Electronics and Biophysical Engineering
University of Genoa
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 1

2. MADE
We have developed a toolkit
MADE: Mobile Application Development Environment
 designed ad-hoc to support the creative approach of
multimedia applications on mobile devices
MADE is composed of:
a visual development tool through which developers
(also not programming experts) can develop their own
applications for mobile devices
A scripting language for the description of MADE
apps
A set of modules to support localization and proximity
 GPS, RFID
A set of player to run MADE apps on mobile devices
 until now Windows Mobile and PCs
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 2

3. Location-Awareness in museum
Proximity Module MADE script
(RFID reader)
MADE Player
Museum Map
RFID sw
Environment with
active low-power
RFID Tags
User GUI
controls
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 3

4. MADE RFID
The MADE RFID module implements a proximity
algorithm based on scanning of tags in the area
it support the iCARD Identec reader
Why RFID?
 Availability of long-range (up to 100 meters) long-range
communication with long-life (up tp 5 years) battery life
– Bluetooth: no long-battery life
Why Windows Mobile?
 Simple to add hw modules with Compact
Flash interface
 We plan also to port MADE on Android
and iOS
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 4

5. Main outcomes
Through MADE developers can combine the
multimedia content, GUI controls and proximity
awareness components
images, videos, buttons, maps, position, nearest
objects etc.)
to easily build multimedia applications
not as flexible as the manual coding
easy to use
hides language-specific complex aspects
speed-up the most routinely parts of the work
rapid prototyping
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 5

6. Example of applications
Examples of applications developed with MADE
Tour guides
 Genoa Aquarium
 Palazzo del Principe Museum
Territorial gaming
 VeGame: a treasure-hunt game
which challenges players at the
field discovery of the Venetian heritage
 ScienceGame for “Festival della Scienza”
Visual impaired support: LodeStar
 EuroFlora 2006
 Villa Serra (a naturalistic park in Genoa) 2008
 Museo del Mare (a museum in Genoa) 2010
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 6

7. Visually impaired support
Using sensors (RFID), we provide visually impaired
people with location-related added value information on
objects and spaces
The guide supports users
by identifying important
object-to-self and
object-to-object spatial
relations
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 7

8. «Villa Serra» (naturalistic park)
Spatial distribution on “Villa Serra” natural park. Red spot
represent the RFID tags (66 tags)
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 8

9. «Museo del Mare» (Museum)
Spatial distribution on “Museo del Mare”
museum (80 tags, picture shows only 2nd floor)
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 9

10. Design goals
not an assistive technology to allow visually
impaired people independent navigation
a support to better appreciate in an independent
way cultural and natural contents
an exhibition in a museum, a walk in a natural park
not a tool “only” for visually impaired people, but
a tool for all
an event-driven operational mode
only alerts, information on demand
contents written for visually impaired people
 highlighting olfactory and tactile sensorial information
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 10

11. DEMO (from «Museo del Mare»)
An initial two minute tutorial stage
users could experiment the tool interface by pressing
freely the controls
The event-driven UI provides information when
users are in the proximity of tags.
a pop-up window and an audio alert
just-in-time: alerts are offered to the visitor in the
exact moment of the requirement
If the user wishes listen to the description, he
can press the touch screen
low intrusiveness: the user is asked about his
willingness to accept the contents
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 11

12. Experimental results
Experiments with real users in a real context of use
LodeStar can contribute to improve
visually impaired people’s ability
to learn a route through an
unfamiliar area
recall important features in the
environment, like tagged
points-of-interest
As an example:
A sketch of the natural park map
draw by a subject
The user have correctly identified
the entrance (I), bar ( R), the lake center (X) and his initial path
(V)
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 12

13. Conclusion
Support for
Rapid prototype of mobile guide
proximity awareness
Different application types
Tuorist guides
Territorial gaming
Visually impaired tools
A set of real-world applications deployed
User-test results gives good fedback from end-
users
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 13

14. References
F. Bellotti, R. Berta and A. Gloria. "Widely usable user interfaces on Mobile
Devices with RFID", in Handbook of Research on User Interface Design and
Evaluation for Mobile Technology. J. Lumsden (Ed.). Idea Group Inc. 2008
F. Bellotti, R. Berta, M. Margarone and A. Gloria. "oDect: an RFID-based
object detection API to support applications development on mobile
devices",Software: Practice and Experience, Vol. 38, January, 2008
F. Bellotti, R. Berta, A. Gloria and M. Margarone. "Implementing tour guides
for travelers", Human Factors in Ergonomics & Manufacturing, Vol. 15,
September, 2005
F. Bellotti, R. Berta, A. De Gloria, E. Ferretti, M. Margarone, VeGame: Field
Exploration of Art and History in Venice , IEEE Computer, Vol. 36, No.9, pp.
48-55, September 2003
F. Bellotti, R. Berta, A. De Gloria, M. Margarone, MADE: developing
edutainment applications on mobile computers, Computers & Graphics,
Volume 27, Issue 4, April 2003
F. Bellotti, R. Berta, A. De Gloria, M. Margarone, User Testing a Hypermedia
Tour Guide, IEEE Pervasive Computing, Volume 1, Issue 2, pp. 33-41, April-
June 2002
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 14

15. Thank you!
Questions?
Riccardo Berta
berta@elios.unige.it
www.elios.unige.it
Re-Thinking Technology in Museums
May 2011 www.elios.dibe.unige.it 15