Icomera’s subsidiary, GoMedia, has won the Cross Industry Partnership category at the Railway Innovation Awards with their Transport Accessibility project.
The recent pandemic has shown the power of working across industry. The railway is a system and is therefore at its best when companies collaborate to improve the way it operates. The Transport Accessibility project was delivered in collaboration with, West Midlands 5G (WM5G), Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), West Midlands Metro, Vodafone, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), Navilens and various partially sighted and blind communities.
Two million people living with sight loss in the UK are unable to complete at least part of their journeys on public transport independently. Addressing this accessibility issue not only improves passenger satisfaction, it also reduces the estimated impact of sight loss on the UK economy that runs into tens of billions of pounds each year, which could be alleviated by getting the right information to blind or partially-sighted passengers at the right time.
GoMedia’s Transport Accessibility solution provides timely and accurate information to passengers who need additional assistance when travelling on the UK public transport network, either in the station or on the vehicle. Passengers simply hold up their smartphone. The device automatically recognises any NaviLens BIDI codes in view, connects to GoMedia’s live cloud-based passenger information system and delivers the desired information.
Previously the level of content-rich, location-based information needed was not possible due to a lack of the necessary technology and infrastructure. Relevant information is now being transmitted to passengers’ devices in the format that they require, over 5G cellular networks. The reduced latency of the 5G network increases the speed of delivery of data to personal devices, improving current location tools. The increased capacity of 5G supports data-rich experiences, enabling passengers to stream augmented reality (AR) location-based video content on a moving vehicle.
Read more about the collaborative projects Icomera and GoMedia have been involved in.
