EGNOS helping the visually impaired citizens / ESA TV Exchanges / 30-06-2006

The next transmission of the ESA TV Service will be:

30-Jun-06 08:45 – 09:00 GMT

EGNOS helping the visually impaired citizens

ESA TV Exchanges

Background information on the transmission:

Replay 1: 20 June 2006 – 15:00-15:15 GMT

Replay 2: 24 June 2006 – 10:15-10:30 GMT

Today’s ESA TV Exchange features a prototype satellite receiver that is accurate enough to guide a pedestrian through busy city streets.

The system is not just a GPS receiver with built-in maps but a navigation unit with a voice synthesizer developed to prove that satellite navigation could increase autonomy of blind citizens. Such system will not replace white canes or guide dogs but complement them with an ‘audible map’.

Without Egnos, Europe’s own overlay for GPS, the system were impossible. Egnos provides the 1-metre accuracy and more importantly, the safety features that make the difference between being on the path or in the road.

The script is online as a PDF file under http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS46842.pdf

This ESA TV Exchanges feed is transmitted by the European Commission’s “Europe by Satellite” (EbS) service. You can find the complete transmission schedule and download scripts and shot lists, also for ESA TV items, from the EbS Web site at http://europa.eu.int/comm/ebs/schedule.cfm

More background information can be found on http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM4MWK8IOE_index_0.html.

Transmission details:EUTELSAT HOT BIRD at 13° East (DVB/MPEG-2)

Horizontal, F=12,476 MHz (MCPC, Europe by Satellite)

SR=27,500 MS/sec, FEC=3/4

For further information, visit our website at http://television.esa.int. For other enquires, contact Claus Habfast, Tel +31 71 565 3838, Fax +31 71 565 6340, e-mail claus.habfast@esa.int.