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User:PaulBeckmann/Pedestrian Navigation

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Most people move around in their environment. Until very recently, humans moved by walking. Pedestrian Navigation encompasses how people move through their environments while on foot. This often involves goal-directed behavior but can also be exploratory in nature.

Navigation Technologies[edit]

Dead Reckoning[edit]

Dead Reckoning is a simple technique to estimate position that requires a way of estimating time, velocity and direction. Attaching a cord with knots at regular intervals to a float, throwing it overboard, and counting the number of knots that went by over a fixed period of time was a way of estimating velocity. (It was also the method used to measure one nautical mile per hour or knot).

Dead reckoning is the principle behind the use of inertial navigation systems generally and the advent of miniature laser gyro systems has made it practical to consider these techniques for pedestrian navigation.

Map & Compass[edit]

Another common way of accomplishing pedestrian navigation is with map and Compass, especially when outside of city boundaries. This is essentially a method of triangulation. Another method uses a pair of Peloruses or Alidades mounted on a ship to perform the task of nautical piloting.

The technique involves determining an angular relationship between your position and that of two other known locations. By drawing lines of position on a map along the directions observed to those points from your location, the point of intersection of those two lines is the estimate of your location. If three or more points are used and their lines of positions established, the error in your location estimate can be determined.

Sextant & Tables[edit]

Radio Beacons[edit]

Global Positioning System (GPS)[edit]

Outdoor Pedestrian Navigation: Cities[edit]

Along the sidewalks[edit]

Crossing streets[edit]

Points of interest[edit]

Outdoor Pedestrian Navigation : Natural Environments[edit]

Hiking and Backpacking[edit]

Becoming "unlost"[edit]

(Herb Pick & ??? in the 1990's on expert map use)

Outdoor Pedestrian Navigation : Competitive[edit]

Orienteering[edit]

Military Combat[edit]

Geo-caching[edit]

Indoor Pedestrian Navigation: General[edit]

Signage[edit]

Role of Architecture[edit]

Building Directories[edit]

Interactive Kiosks

Pedestrian Navigation with Impaired Vision[edit]

Orientation & Mobility Training[edit]

(Highlight the distinction here between Guide Dog / Cane mobility aids and navigational aids)

The problem with signs[edit]

Dynamic environments[edit]

Accessibility approaches[edit]

Systems for Pedestrian Navigation with Impaired Vision: Outdoors[edit]

Chirping crosswalk signals[edit]

GPS-based systems[edit]

Talking signs: Smith-Kettlewell[edit]

Systems for Pedestrian Navigation with Impaired Vision: Indoors[edit]

Digital Sign System (UMN/USC/AME)[edit]

Talking Lights[edit]

Talking signs: Lighthouse of New York[edit]

Wi-Fi based triangulation[edit]

RFID applications[edit]