WORSE WORLD

TouchRoute is a project I built to make indoor navigation easier and safer for people with visual impairments. Imagine entering a hospital, railway station or hotel you've never visited before. You know where you want to go, but finding your way around isn't easy. You often have to depend on other people for directions, and not everyone around you knows the building or can help you. I wanted to build something that could reduce this dependency and give people more confidence to navigate on their own. TouchRoute offers three ways to navigate indoor spaces. The first, and my main feature, is tactile maps. A building's floor plan is uploaded to our system, where AI helps identify rooms, walls, corridors, entrances, stairs and elevators. After verification, this information is converted into tactile map files with raised pathways and Braille labels, which can be used to create physical maps that people can explore through touch. The second feature is NFC-to-Voice. NFC markers placed at designated locations inside a building allow visitors to establish their starting point using their smartphone. TouchRoute then loads the building map and provides voice assistance to help them navigate. The third option is QR-based web access, where visitors can scan a QR code and access the building's verified floor plan through a web interface with voice support. I'm also working towards real-time indoor positioning, so visitors can receive guidance based on their changing location rather than just their starting point. The idea behind TouchRoute is simple: people with visual impairments should be able to explore unfamiliar places with greater independence and confidence, without having to rely on someone else for every direction.