En Route to Personal Guidance for Mobility-Impaired Users
From: IST Results - 04/28/2006

European researchers expect to complete work on a guided travel system for
people with mobility or cognitive impairments, or even a larger audience, by
December 18th. More than 80 content providers, including big telecom
carriers, city governments, and chambers of commerce, have already thrown
their support behind a standard ontological framework using XML, which should
be ready by June 2006. IST is funding the ASK-IT project, which is readying
new software that the mobility-impaired can use to program their personal
needs and preferences into latest-generation mobile phones and PDAs, as well
as a Web service for housing information about local facilities and services.
A real-time system, ASK-IT would be able to aid a wheelchair user plan a trip
to Sweden by providing information on hotels that offer suitable access and
helping with travel arrangements, such as recommending buses that have
suitable wheelchair ramps or suggesting parking areas that offer wheelchair
access, if the individual is traveling by car. "Inside the bus it works with
the bus routing system, so it can tell you when to disembark for example,"
says ASK-IT technical manager Angelos Bekiaris of the system, which can also
work with an in-car navigation system via a Bluetooth connection. "Once
inside the airport, the system links with airport wireless networks to guide
you to the departure gate," he says of ASK-IT, which will make use of GSM
networks and the GPS satellite system. Users will be able to book and pay for
services online. Budapest, the Hague, Genoa, Helsinki, Madrid, Newcastle,
Nuremberg, and Thessalonica are building pilot ASK-IT databases on local
services, and are on pace launch to demonstrations in 2007.  

Read the entire article at:
http://istresults.cordis.lu/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/ID/81691/BrowsingType/Features

Links:
ASK-IT
http://www.ask-it.org/

Mobile personal assistant for travel information
http://istresults.cordis.lu/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/BrowsingType/Features/ID/81610