Wayfindr

Wireless beacons are set to help visually impaired people navigate their way around Euston Tube station in London.

Non-profit organisation Wayfindr will test its audio guiding system at the station until January 2016. Google.org, the search giant's philanthropic arm, has donated £660,000 to help develop the service.


The prototype phone application interacts with Bluetooth emitting beacons to provide information on the right way to go. The installation at Euston station follows a successful trial at the much smaller Pimlico station that finished earlier this year. "We want to be inside everything," Umesh Pandya the CEO of Wayfindr told WIRED. "We want, by being open and sharing everything we know, to be inside navigation products and services -- such as Google Maps or CityMapper -- that help the end user. We also want to be inside physical spaces as well."

Wayfindr

Pandya also explained that Wayfindr's beacons could also be introduced into shopping centres and other public spaces, with the company aiming to be as open as possible.

"Our ambition and where we're going is that we want to create an open standard for everyone to use and benefit from and make the daily lives for visually impaired people better, by allowing them to navigate the world independently," he said.

By creating a standard for audio navigation guidelines, Pandya hopes that any app or place could easily integrate the same system. Wayfindr intends to publish its open standard in spring 2016.