For a GPS receiver to be accurate, the antenna must have a direct line of sight to the satellites. A person wearing the NVI must have the antenna visible to the sky at all times, and stand away from tall buildings because the buildings will block the line of sight of the antenna to the satellites.
For this product to be marketable, the unit must be approximately the size of a Walkman tape player, weigh under 2 Kgs., contain all street intersections and possibly house numbers, cost under $1,000, and be accurate to at least + 3 meters.
Analysis
The current prototype is made up of three main components: a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver, a INTEX TALKER (text-to-speech converter), and a lap-top computer. This system currently weighs approximately 12 Kgs. A production version will weigh approximately 1 Kg. Also the system must be integrated into a single package.
Trimble Navigation Inc. has developed a GPS receiver called the "SVeeSix" which is approximately 10 x 9 x 2 cm and weighs 0.05 Kg. (see Appendix 1). This circuit board can be interfaced with a CPU and memory to run the software needed to take the geographical location and give the user the current location with reference to the street intersection. Therefore the lap-top and Intex Talker can be reduced in both size and weight to that of the GPS circuit board. The final prototype would be approximately 12 x 10 x 5 cm and would weigh less than 1 Kg.
Since the antenna must have a direct line of sight to the satellites, the antenna must be placed on top of the user's head. There would be headphones for the person to hear the NVI speaking, as this provides a place for the antenna on top of the band going over the user's head connecting the speakers together. This will allow the antenna to always face the sky, and it will permit the user freedom of use of their hands. The antenna has a 3 cm radius and a 2 cm height. See Appendix 1 for more detail.
External
For this analysis the location of concern will be Ottawa. As of January 1, 1993, CNIB Ottawa had 2,500 registered clients. Of these 2,500 clients approximately 200 would be able to use such a device, since a majority of them would be over the age of 70 years of age, unable to walk outdoors alone.
Competition
In Canada, there is no comparable device since this is a continuous innovation, defined as an innovation that may not profoundly affect the course of human history. Therefore, this is a new product development problem.
In Great Britain, a team of developers has been designing a navigational system for the blind, but it is not known what stage of development their project is at currently.
Consumers
The selected target markets for the NVI are visually disabled people between the ages of 18 and 69, the tourism industry, Seeing-Eye Dog Association, and the general public seeking a novelty item.
A person who is visually impaired values independence above all else. Such a device will allow the user the freedom to walk around city streets, knowing exactly where they are without asking anyone for assistance. The CNIB said that for such a device to be useful to a visually impaired person it must be possible to enter the home address into memory and later ask the NVI unit how to get there. When queried, the NVI would say for example; "Turn down Bronson, cross over three streets, turn right onto Sunnyside and straight ahead one block."
The tourism industry could use these devices to help people unfamiliar with a city to find their way around more easily. The NVI would have to be modified so that a tourist could key in where they wanted to go. The unit would then direct them how many blocks to the left, right or straight ahead.
The Seeing-Eye Dog Association will buy these devices to help trainers who are visually impaired train the dogs. When training the dogs the trainer must memorize the route to be followed. While en-route the trainer must not only be aware of where they are but also what the dog is doing. With the NVI unit the trainer will not have to worry about an exact location, and will be able to concentrate on training the dog.
The general public could also use the NVI unit when driving at night and trying to read an unlit street sign. Clearly when entering an unfamiliar neighbourhood the device can be very helpful and give a sense of security to a newcomer.
Channels of Distribution
This device would be sold from a few select outlets, namely the CNIB office, and the Seeing-Eye Dog Association building. Since both of these distributers are non-profit organizations, no distribution profit margin is needed.
Economic Feasibility
The current price of the GPS receiver "SVeeSix" is $1200. With mass production, this could be reduced to $500 with orders above 500 units. The cost to construct the rest of the NVI unit would be approximately $100. With the addition of $100 for overhead costs and profitability, the total cost of the NVI unit should be $700.
To place this cost in perspective, it should be considered that a seeing-eye dog costs $25,000. Comparatively, the NVI costs only $700 and offers independence without reliance on a bystander. See Appendix G & Appendix H for a detailed forecast of profitability. Two problems must be dealt with for the unit to be economically feasible: developing an accurate survey of Ottawa; and, improving the accuracy from + 100 meters to at least + 3 meters.
Currently the (RMOC) Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton is engaged in updating their 911 emergency phone service, and in doing so will be using GPS and a computer data base to store this data. This data will be in a format which can be used by the NVI. It is currently unknown whether RMOC will make this data public, but with the backing of the CNIB and the Seeing-Eye Dog Association, it is felt that RMOC will recognize the value of this project and assist .
The accuracy of the GPS receiver can be improved from + 100 meters to + 2 meters by using a "Pseudolite". This is a ground based differential GPS receiver. The Pseudolite will receive the same signals as the NVI unit and send out a correction signal to all the NVI's in the city.
Recommendations
The NVI should be miniaturized, and test marketed in Ottawa. Ottawa is designated a test market city because it is representative of the entire country. The test market should include CNIB clientele: some with seeing-eye dogs, others with white canes, as well as those who can see well enough not to require a dog or a cane. Test marketing should also include seeing-eye dog trainers, and a segment of the general public. Providing that test marketing is successful, a possible marketing strategy is as follows.
Strategy
All the above packages would come standard with a "current time" feature, but only the Advanced package would come with a keyboard, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), and the capacity to add extra memory.
Price
The basic model would cost approximately $700, and the standard model anywhere from $800-$900. The Advanced model would cost approximately $1,000 to $1,100 depending on how much memory was added.
The user would also have to buy a cartridge containing the street intersection locations of the city. This would cost approximately $50, of which $5 would go to labour and materials and $45 to the municipality which supplied the street data. Refer to Appendix G & Appendix H for the projected sales figures for the first year of full production.
Distribution
This device would be available from a few select outlets, namely the CNIB office, and the Seeing-Eye Dog Association building. All major cities in Canada will be initially targeted, and as popularity increased the market would be expanded to include the United States. As the smaller cities updated their maps, these cities too could support the NVI. Each city which wished to support the more advanced features of the NVI would have to buy a Pseudolite, and larger cities probably would have to buy two or three of these depending on how spread out the city is. A Pseudolite would cost approximately $10,000.
Promotion
To maximize the promotional investment, the NVI would be advertised in all tourist magazines, CNIB newsletters, and newspapers in all cities that support NVI.
Future Design
For this product to be a success, a few key points must first be addressed. An inexpensive detailed map of the city must be created. Miniaturization of the GPS receiver, computer, and voice synthesizer must also be accomplished for this product to be successful.
Electronic maps currently exist for each city, and are continuously being updated.
Canadian Marconi has designed a GPS receiver which consists of two chips. In contemporary "high-tech" society, to miniaturize a computer is trivial, as off-the-shelf products exist which I can use, such as voice synthesizers presently contained on a single chip.
The NVI could be reduced to the size of a WalkmanTM and weigh well under 1 Kg. Refer to Appendix E & Appendix F for the proposed product configuration.