Talking Points is a collaborative student project at the University of Michigan whose aim is to develop a prototype mobile urban orientation and contextual information system for blind as well as sighted people.
A mobile device is used to detect points of interest around a city, such as Ann Arbor, using either Bluetooth beacons placed in the environment or GPS coordinates. User generated-content about these location is presented to the user via either an accessible audio or visual modular interface. Information about the points of interests is stored in an online database. This information is retrieved by the cellular data connected mobile device when the user comes within close proximity to a “Talking Point.” The information for each Talking Point is maintained by the Talking Points community; anyone can add, modify, or delete information for each Talking Point.
For more information about the project you can download a short project presentation in PDF format.
For questions or feedback you can reach us at talkingpoints@umich.edu.