NaviLens

NaviLens is a color matrix barcode intended to help blind and visually impaired people find their way around railway and subway stations, museums, libraries, and other public spaces.^[1]

The color matrix code, a tag similar to a simplified QR code,^[2] is read by an app on the smartphone, and then provides selected information about the detected tag's location relative to the user (distance, angle) and about the target to be reached. This could be public transportation schedules, potential physical obstacles, or physical descriptions of the environment. Users can also download tags, print them, and customize their meaning to label food boxes or personal documents.^[3]

Navilens was developed by the Laboratorio de Investigación en Visión Móvil (Movile Vision Research Laboratory)^[4] at the University of Alicante, in collaboration with the Spanish startup NaviLens.^{[citation needed]}

Navilens is proprietary software; intellectual property and licensing rights follow Spanish law, and are held by NaviLens' parent company Neosistec.^[5][6] When using the app, location data and serial number of the smartphone are recorded; the company earns revenue from use of this data. public use of the codes requires paying a license fee to Neostatic; personal use in the home or other private sphere is currently automatically licensed free of charge.^{[citation needed]}

The food product company Kellogg's has obtained a license to put codes on several of their products.^[7]

Examples

• Public transport in Spain^[8]
• New York City subway stations^[9]
• Some Belgian railway stations^[10]
• VIA Metropolitan Transit^[11]