• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.1099-1107
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• 2020

The need for customized services providing real-time subway information through mobile devices for the blind using subway as their primary transportation method is becoming more essential. Therefore, this study is aimed at developing a mobile service to provide real-time subway information by displaying with braille and utilizing Dot Watch. The process of real-time subway information guidance mobile service is as follows: the route confirmation stage, the ride waiting & judgment stage, the on-the-go stage, and lastly, the off-road phase & wrong path state. The service provides real-time appropriate information to the visually impaired people for each situation. It receives subway information through API provided by Seoul Metropolitan Government and ODSay API. The service is developed and coded with in Java using Android Studio, and the communicating method with Dot Watch was done using Bluetooth. The usability evaluation was conducted in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction. The evaluation methods mentioned above were carried out by testees, and feedback was given. They assessed that the information provided was useful but still unstable to use the system. It is expected that actual usability will increase if our study is supplemented using voice output function.