NOPPA


In Finnish

Sari testing NOPPA

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www.vtt.fi/noppa

Personal Navigation and Information System for Users of Public Transport

NOPPA is designed to provide public transport passenger information and pedestrian guidance for the users of public transport. The system has been designed especially for the needs of the visually impaired, but a sighted user can benefit from it as well. NOPPA includes a speech user interface, door-to-door guidance using public transport, the most common GPS functions and several information services. Even a motorist can use it to plan routes and NOPPA knows the street names and speed limits inside Finland.

NOPPA is based on personal navigation components ans services. Modularity enables constant development of the system and helps keep the costs low. Using public service databases over Internet ensures that the information is up-to-date. Combining passenger information from various information sources and creation of general use interfaces have been of high importance in our projects.

The first version of NOPPA personal navigation system was developed in a three-year pilot project part of Ministry of Transport and Communucations Finland's Passenger Information Programme (HEILI). The size of the project was 500 000 euros. Noppa project participated also in Personal navigation - recearch and development programme (NAVI). The most recent development has been made within PUMS project about speech user interfaces. We're currently negotiating piloting NOPPA outside Finland and making it a product.

NOPPA was the first guidance system for a pedestrian including real time public transport information. The system has gained considerable publicity, however mostly due to its speech user interface. The project has been presented in over 300 media.

The system architecture is based on using an Information Server (figure 1), to which the user's mobile phone is connected via mobile Internet. Data transfer and costs are however created only when the user makes a request for information or there is real time information to send. The Information Server handles the Internet searches and heavy speech recognition work and passes only the brief results to the user's phone. This saves data transfer costs.

NOPPA architecture
Figure 1. NOPPA architecture. Click here to see a larger picture.

The client software holds GPS positioning and guidance, personal settings for security reasons and speech synthesis. You can get more information about the system architecture from our publications or by contacting us.

NOPPA can be used with the following smartphones:
  • Most Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) smartphones, e.g. Qtek 2020, XDA II
  • Many Symbian S60 models. We've tested with Nokia 3230, 6600, 6630 ja 7610.
Main features of Noppa personal navigation system:

Public transport information
  • Time tables (several national sources for trains, buses, trams and subway, also real time stop information)
  • Public transport route planning in 6 cities (YTV route planner, TKL route planner, www.matka.fi)
  • Driving plans for the whole country (Finnish yellow pages)
  • Real time information (public transport disruptions in capital area, stop information, flights, following the status of your own flight)
  • Some Point of Interest and Area of Interest information
Communication (specially for PDA to improve usability)
  • Phone calls
  • SMS
GPS functions
  • Own route recording and guidance (one of the key functions for the visually impaired)
  • Measuring distances
  • Measuring travelled distance
  • Coordinates, heading
  • Time
 Navigation
  • Search of current address
  • Speed limit (national Digiroad database)
  • Guidance algorithms for  pedestrians and motorists (adapts to speed, allows change of public transport mode)
  • Roadwork warnings (Helsinki Winkki system)
  • Research level functions for indoor navigation and navigation without a GPS device
News and weather
  • Yle short news
  • HS short news
  • Local weather
Other
  • Simple Voice memo
  • Stop watch
Local information (option, hasn't become popular)
  • Short range radio communication (Bluetooth) to signs and base stations
Optional acessories
  • RFID reader (functional demo, personal voice tags for items)
  • Collision warning device (a prototype which hasn't been connected to Noppa by far)


A group of selected test users have been using the system since 2004.

If you're interested in localization of NOPPA, we have English versions of the software to try out in your own phone. The translation work is made simple, but full operation in other countries requires study on public transport information sources available.

NOPPA prototypes
Figure 2. Noppa prototypes.

NOPPA/PUMS project participants:

Ministry of Transport and Communications Finland
Helsinki Public Works Department
The City of Espoo
Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired (FFVI)
Arla Institute
Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council
Finish Rail Administration
Finish Road Administaration
Helsinki City Transport
Kouvola region
Tekes

Thanks for co-operation:

Lingsoft
Timehouse
Microsoft
VTI Hamlin


Contact: Ari Virtanen ja Sami Koskinen



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