Vodafone | 5G Navigation
Together with Glasnost International, FROLIC studio, Johan de Meijer and Vodafone I developed software for Tristan Bangma (Paralympic Worldchampion Cycling) who has a visual impairment to help him navigate the tracks using audio.
In this project FROLIC studio designed and developed the sensors necessary to scan the surroundings while Tristan is on the bike and I developed a native android app, connected to the sensors, that sends the data to a server.
The (Ubuntu Linux) server runs a custom build headless unity application that interprets the data and computes spatialized audio. The audio is then broadcasted back to Tristan using VBAN (low-latency lossless audio transmission) to Tristan’s headset. The audio gives Tristan the necessary information to navigate the tracks. The total latency ranges around 30 – 60 milliseconds.
The aim of this project was to demonstrate the capabilities of the new 5G network and of course to enable Tristan to keep doing what he loves despite having a deteriorating visual impairment.
