It's much like checking a traffic report before setting out from home, but designed for people with limited mobility. The phone app, called The Atlas, shows users a map of their intended route, noting any physical barriers they may encounter during the day — whether construction, elevator and building closures, snow and ice or poor accessibility.
Invented by Click&Push Accessibility — a company that commercializes technologies and research from the University of Alberta's Rehabilitation Robotics Laboratory in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine — the free app is crowd-sourced, allowing community users to report obstacles, take photos and even inform those responsible for the barriers.
The app's map is currently based on the Edmonton area, but the creators are now using machine learning to expand its reach to other communities, perhaps even nationally, says Martin Ferguson-Pell, founder and principal investigator of the robotics laboratory.
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