Technical data

Swiss Library for the Blind (SBS), Federal Ofﬁce of Transport (FOT), Public Transportation

Authorities of the City of St.Gallen (VBSG) and the Engineering Ofﬁce Bones Inc.

PAVIP includes several, independent projects, below you will ﬁnd three of them:

6.5.1. PAVIP Pharma

The handling with pharmaceutical drugs involves some hurdles for blind people. Hurdles

are the identiﬁcation of medicine at home and to get information about taking instructions

written on the package insert or further information as expiration date, adverse effects etc.

Therefore the project “Pharma” has been initiated by Bones in cooperation with SNAB

(Swiss National Association for Blind) based on the the product Speakout. A ﬁrst trial of

100 test person has been arranged. Each subject received a Milestone with Speakout and

some tags. With this equipment they entered their pharmacies with the goal to receive the

required medicine and the appropriate information in a usable form for blind people.

Therefore the test person asked the pharmacist, if she or he would be up to label the

medicine with a RFID tag and then use Speakout to record an appropriate voice message

with the most important information. For example the name of the medicine, name of the

sick person, description on how to use, adverse effects and expiration date. At home the

test person tried out to use these information. The ﬁrst step was to scan the medicines

with Speakout and with it to identify the medicines. After the correct one has been found

the test person listened in a second step to the information recorded by the pharmacist,

which automatically appears after scanning.

The focus on this experiment was on the beneﬁt for the blind user and also the reaction of

the pharmacist.

From both sides we received very positive reactions. The blind test person were very

satisﬁed and especially pointed out the improvement in safety and autonomous access to

pharmaceutical drugs. The pharmacists welcomed the easy and quick process of

recording and not one of them failed to use Speakout.

6.5.2. PAVIP Transport

PAVIP Transport is an information and navigational system for blind people for public

transport, which is based on Milestone 312. The following user experience shall give you a

clearer image about how PAVIP Transport helps:

You reach a bus stop and grab your Milestone 312 with the PAVIP module. While the

crowd is looking jealously at your lovely electronic device, you scan over the front of the

time table and receive acoustically the information at which bus station you are, which bus

lines will stop here, when they appear, what the location around you looks like and much

more information. You open the point “bus lines” on your M312 and choose the line

number 7 to the train station. When the bus line 7 is 100m in front of your station, you

receive a signal acoustically or over vibration that your bus is near. The bus stops in front

of you. With a push of a button on M312 you open the door of the bus. A discreet acoustic

signal from the bus entry helps you to locate and ﬁnd the bus door. While sitting in the bus

you get connected to the bus system. You have now further information available on your

M312, as for example which is the next bus station. You can also look ahead and request

all the following stops of your line 7. If you come to know that the next station is yours, you

can activate the bus stop request over Milestone and when it arrives, again activate the

acoustic help to ﬁnd the door. If necessary the system can also give out information about

the design of the bus, for example hurdles (steps) when you exit. Or in the train where the

toilets are or the diner. When you have left the bus you can again scan the time table. You

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