The first 4G Friendly Freeway Service APP launched at Guansi Service Area! This smart mobile service can talk, listen and even help impaired visions with ordering food, the presentation was held on March 4. County Magistrate Chiu, Ching-chun was pleased that this mobile map service can become the eyes of visually impaired people and physically disabled people to help them navigate through the service area; allowing them to enjoy Taiwan’s fine food and beautiful scenery.
Magistrate Chiu said that Hsinchu County has made the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) Top 7 list and now also has the first 4G friendly Freeway Service APP which, he believes, will help Hsinchu County do well at the next stage of selection (Top 1)! Director General of the National Freeway Bureau, MOTC, Chen Yan-bo said, this APP, is aimed to create a barrier-free and easy to use environment so that visually impaired people can learn about the facilities and considerate services offered at the service area.
Deputy Director of the Industrial Development Bureau Lu, Shao-hua said that last year Taipei City and New Taipei City installed a service app for the visually impaired in nine stations on seven MRT lines. Now freeway service has taken the first step forward at Guansi Service Area. He invited visually impaired people to share their use experience so the APP can be improved and made friendlier and more convenient. In the future, it could be extended to all freeway service areas in Taiwan and overseas.
4G friendly Freeway Service APP is a product of a joint effort by doctoral candidate Lin Chen-you, who lost his eyesight in a road accident, and two social enterprise partners, Zhan Yi-jing and Lin Zhi-yi, it took over a year to be developed. Lin Chen-you thinks that if given enough assistance, visually impaired people could be just like normal people traveling around enjoying life and good food.
Using 4G mobile network and Bluetooth smart sensor technology, When approaching a Beacon in the service area, the APP will use 4G mobile networking and Bluetooth smart sensor technology to automatically identify and display your current position (spoken for visually impaired people) and also provide text display and voice speaking giving the user information about the environment’s friendly services and product discounts; as well as providing a 720-degree all-round information map. The app not only allows ordinary people and the visually impaired to learn about various facilities and services in advance, but also provides a speaking map for the visually impaired that can also listen.