Disability Travel Hackaton in Google.

Helping People with Sight Disability's

Q: Have you ever wanted to work in Google and help people at the the same time?

One Weekend in November 2016, I got the opportunity to take part in a Disability Travel Hackaton in Google's HQ in Dublin. Our Brief was to come up with a solution to help Disabled People move around the City in an easier way. People from all walks of life came to the Hackaton. At the start of the Weekend on Friday Evening, the organizers introduced themselves and gave speeches. After a bit of thinking we purposed ideas to develop which were written down on a board. We then voted on each idea and formed teams to work on the successful ones.

Fig1: Inventing Things with my Team Mates over Breakfast. I'am still eating. !!

Over the remaining part of the Weekend ( Saturday and Sunday ) we worked on our Ideas in Google and presented them to a panel of Judges on Sunday Evening. Each team had a table to demonstrate the ideas. Disabled People were present that we could talk to and get ideas from and a Panel of Advisers / Mentors were present at tables to help us. In addition Nissan kindly provided the loan of two cars, that we could examine and take measurements from. The Judges conferred and picked the winners and awarded prizes to the participants. The Minister for People with Disabilities came to see our Work and take back the Learnings to the Cabinet. First Prize was Two Thousand Euros and Three Months work-space in Dog Patch Labs or UCD Labs. Second Prize was One Thousand Euros and Three Months work-space in Dog Patch Labs or UCD Labs. It was an amazing weekend and I learned a lot in pitching an idea to a Minister and a Panel of Judges.

Fig 2: Plans and Designs !

I was in a team of three and our idea which we pitched was called Travel Talk. This idea came about from talking to a person with visual impermanent at the Event. The person expressed the problem with Bus Stop Signs that display information on when a particular Bus is due. The person with visual impermanent cannot see the sign and so will not know when the Bus is coming. Our solution is called Travel Talk and is a Free App. that resides on a Smartphone. It picks up information from Dublin Bus Website on when the bus is due and uses geo-location information to work out which bus-stop the person is standing at.

Fig 3: Our Idea Board !

Travel Talk uses TARA to communicate with the visually impaired person. If the person cannot use voice commands then TARA will receive commands through a Braille Keyboard attached to the back of the Phone. Travel Talk will receive Data Streams from LUAS and Train Services through the use Expansion Packs to the Basic App. It will be free and open source and will hook into Google Services like:

1: Google Maps, (Geo-Location)

2: Google Translate, (For people with different languages)

3: Google Calendar, ( For Appointments and Notifications)

This is to keep development costs low.

Fig 4: Agenda Brief for Saturday. !

We hope to get University's and Colleges involved through Ninja Hackatons. We hope they will write Expansion Packs and Plug-ins for Travel Talk and the product will grow and grow !!

We hope to get Businesses and Government Organizations to sponsor the Product.

Fig 5: Judging Time in Google. !

We hope to provide feedback to the Transport Organizations in the form of data analytics and improve the product through the use of customer feedback forms.

Fig 6: Time for a Break. !!

We plan to include soft advertising in the product. This will be in the form of products targeted at people with disability's , if we cannot get sponsorship.

Fig 7: Our Pitch Area. !

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Here are our Pitch Slides for you to review:

Fig 8: A Braille Keyboard Add-On for the iPhone - The EDGE 40 Communicator.

This would form the basis of our future expansion of the Product.

Conclusion

A Great Weekend at Google HQ in Barrow Street. !!

In the Weekend I was able to practice:

1: Public Speaking.

2: Presentation of a Report.

3: Developing Products.

4: Meetings and Discussions with Industry Experts and People with Disability's.

5: Working in a Team.

6: Note-Taking.

7: Pitching Ideas.

I would highly recommend this Hackaton for Recent Graduates to develop their Confidence and Experience.