The Smart Sign
Indoor Navigation with Android Things and the Google Assistant
Indoor navigation Made Easy
Navigating indoors isn't easy, especially when you're in a new place. While traditional signs can be helpful, they aren't able to provide
custom information to users. Most digital signs aren't much better, they can be confusing and difficult to use when the information on
their screens is quickly changing. The Smart Sign aims to solve this problem by being voice-forward. By extending the Google Assistant, the
Smart Sign can address each user's individual needs. The Smart Sign can be tailored to any building because it uses custom-built commands to
give directions to users within a building.
The Basics
Easy to Use
Just tap the screen and ask the Smart Sign a question. It's that easy!
"Ok Google"
The Google Assistant's natural language processing makes answering questions a breeze.
Zero State
The Smart Sign's idle screen shows the weather, time, and location.
Customizable
Custom commands can easily be written to adapt the Smart Sign to nearly any situation.
Publication
After alpha testing of the Smart Sign was completed, my team and I authored a paper about the device.
It was published at the 2019 IEEE Sensors Applications in mid-March in Sophia Antipolis, France.
One of my coauthors presented the paper at the conference.
Citation:
D. Sheppard, N. Felker, and J. Schmalzel, "Development of Voice Commands in Digital Signage for Improved Indoor Navigation Using Google Assistant SDK," 2019 IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium (SAS), Sophia Antipolis, France, 2019, pp. 1-5.doi: 10.1109/SAS.2019.8706120