Opportunity Knocks: A System to Provide Cognitive Assistance with Transportation Services

Abstract

We present an automated transportation routing system, called “Opportunity Knocks,” whose goal is to improve the efficiency, safety and independence of individuals with mild cognitive disabilities. Our system is implemented on a combination of a Bluetooth sensor beacon that broadcasts GPS data, a GPRS-enabled cell-phone, and remote activity inference software. The system uses a novel inference engine that does not require users to explicitly provide information about the start or ending points of their journeys; instead this information is learned from users’ past behavior. Futhermore, we demonstrate how route errors can be detected and how the system helps to correct the errors with real-time transit information. In addition we present a novel solution to the problem of labeling positions with place names.