Intercity Transit Pilots NaviLens to Make Public Transit More Accessible

Intercity Transit is piloting NaviLens to give passengers wayfinding information as well as real-time bus departure times at the Olympia and Lacey Transit Centers. NaviLens is designed for people who:

  • Have low vision
  • Are blind
  • Cannot read signs or understand written English

Brightly colored NaviLens codes will be placed at transit bays and in locations such as seating areas, restrooms and customer service counters. Using their smartphone (Android or iOS) and the NaviLens app, passengers can scan the transit platforms without knowing where the codes are. The codes are read quickly—within 0.03 seconds—from up to 60 feet away, providing audible information about your distance from a transit bay when scanned. The codes don’t need to be in focus and can be read at up to an 80-degree angle on either side, giving you a 160-degree field of detection. When scanned, you will receive audio wayfinding information as well as real-time next bus departure information.

NaviLens also enables indoor wayfinding without the use of Bluetooth or GPS.

NaviLens provides audio in the default language of your smartphone; and is currently available in 34 languages, making it accessible to people who don’t read or speak English.

The Mobile Apps

NaviLens codes can be accessed using two free apps: NaviLens and NaviLens Go.

NaviLens

The NaviLens app is designed for blind users and delivers information audibly. It works with VoiceOver accessibility settings on your smartphone to guide you through the interface, 

though VoiceOver does not need to be enabled for the app to start giving you audio guidance.

The app activates as soon as you open it, but you can customize how it delivers.

  • In settings, you can personalize the instruction styles, whether sounds or voice instructions are most helpful, distance from codes, angle of codes, time elapsed since the last code was read, which measurement system the app will use, and more.
  • In visualization mode, you can customize if you only want to access codes you recently used, or if you want to be able to access codes you have used over the duration of your trip. If you want to hear the most recent set of instructions again, simply shake your phone and the app will re-read the last registered code.

Once you’ve explored these settings, hold up your phone in the transit center and let the guidance begin!

The Main Menu button at the top left of the screen reveals a menu containing Settings, 360 Vision, Siri Shortcuts (Apple devices) and more. On the lower left of the screen, is the scan button; in the center is the history button; and, on the lower right is the My favorites button.

NaviLens Go

After downloading the app, you’ll be prompted to accept the terms and will receive a brief walkthrough of the interface.

When you scan and point your phone at a NaviLens code, the app will return next bus arrivals.

Using the menu at the top left of your screen you can select a bus bay or other location; arrows will then guide you to your selected destination. If no destination is chosen, the app still provides arrows, and describes what is around you without guiding you to a specific destination.

The menu also allows you to open settings, where you can select a wheelchair accessible route, explore functions and scan mode, and font size.

Available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play!