Lee Ji-hoon, who was a member of South Korea’s para ice hockey team that won the bronze medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Paralympics, demonstrates how to use a self-driving wheelchair with autonomous navigation technology as he takes part in an event to unveil the smart wheelchair at the Korean War Memorial in Seoul on April 28, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities, a quasi-governmental agency under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, said Sunday it will collect big data for the next three months which will be used for the development of a pedestrian navigation service for the disabled.
The project was launched after it was assessed that the disabled face difficulties locating building entrances or accessing certain locations due to various obstacles, even if they reach the destination via a navigation app.
The agency then sent out a proposal to a number of enterprises, local governments, and public agencies to address the issue.
As a result, some 50 organizations including the Korea Expressway Corporation, the Postal Facility Management Agency and KT Corp. committed to joining the initiative.
Employees from the participating agencies will install a dedicated app on their mobile phones to take photos of entrances, elevators and various obstacles to join in an effort to create a new navigation platform that ensures the disabled can properly access their destinations.
The big data collected through this initiative will be reviewed by an artificial intelligence (AI) system and the disabled members of the initiative before they are reflected in the pedestrian navigation app.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
