Concept proposal and experimental verification of a sidewalk supporting system utilizing a smartphone

Shin-Yo Muto,Hideaki Iwamoto,Yukihiro Nakamura,Manabu Okamoto,Tatsuaki Ito

doi:10.1186/s40648-016-0044-4

Abstract

In this report, we propose a system to be used as a basis for the efficient gathering of information on sidewalk usage and services for the purpose of building a system to support social infrastructures through which users can move safely and securely. We assume services for extracting and providing useful information to sidewalk users and local governments. Specifically, we propose a concept for a sidewalk supporting system that accumulates information from strollers, mobility scooters, bicycles, etc., through sidewalk users’ smartphones, sensors, and other such devices to provide valid information. Next, we show a proposed basic system configuration utilizing data collection technologies that have been developed in robots and walking appearance analysis with regard to responses to the diversity of sensors and the characteristics of smartphones. Furthermore, we introduce techniques for estimating sidewalk conditions using the subjectivity of sidewalk passers-by with regard to the acquisition of training data to analyse data effectively. As a specific application case, we evaluated the estimation of the gradient and unevenness of sidewalks by machine learning from the sensor data during the passage of strollers, and verified the effectiveness of this method.

Highlights

Along with the spread of smartphones and cloud technology in recent years, an environment of collecting and accumulating records of individuals’ activities or so-called life logs through networks, has been prepared
It is considered that one sensor datum is not labelled for road surface shapes, and the estimation of road surface conditions was repeated 450 times as the total number in the estimation model which was constructed from the sensor data corresponding to 449 labels
In this report, we proposed a system to be the basis for efficient information gathering on sidewalk situations and services for extracting useful information and providing it to sidewalk users and local governments for the purpose of building a system to support social infrastructures through which users can move safety and securely

Summary

Introduction

Along with the spread of smartphones and cloud technology in recent years, an environment of collecting and accumulating records of individuals’ activities or so-called life logs through networks, has been prepared. Life logs include internet operation histories, application portfolios in place, and GPS information, that occur during daily activities. As an example of its application, a system has been proposed to estimate individuals’ preferences and life patterns from the accumulated data to provide a personalized information service [1]. Wearable devices [2] have generally been spread in a rapid manner, and a wide variety of services using sensors and network terminals owned by users have been considered. Robotic rooms [3, 4] that assist users by managing a wide variety of sensor information installed indoors. It can be said that these are examples where the data collector side built systems to collect data primarily with sensors whose specifications were defined in advance

Methods

Results

Conclusion