MyPath: Accessible Route Generation Using Crowd-Sensed Surface Information

Wheelchair users often find it difficult to navigate unfamiliar areas both built and natural. Although routing applications have been designed for cars and bikes, accessible routing for wheelchair users is a non-trivial problem that has been scarcely investigated. Wheelchair navigation is obstructed by several barriers such as broken or uneven path surfaces, steep inclines, absence of curb ramps and access slopes, etc. An accessible route enables wheelchair users to avoid such barriers while navigating familiar and unfamiliar environments. In this paper, we propose MyPath - an accessible routing system that leverages crowd-sourced surface vibration data captured through smartphones carried by wheelchair users. Data contributed by the users are then used to automatically recognize surface types and to populate the OpenStreetMap (OSM). Our efficient routing algorithms leverage rich OSM information to generate end-to-end accessible routes and present them through an interactive user interface. MyPath system has been extensively evaluated by a dedicated expert group of wheelchair users and other participants to ensure the seamless operation of the proposed system.