A ‘talking’ floor for the Sant’Ambrogio district at the Palio di Legnano
Milan, 17 May 2022 – At the Palio di Legnano, a ‘talking’ floor was used to create tactile accessible routes for blind people. In May 2022, for the historic event held every year in Legnano, a city in the Province of Milan, Partitalia srl, an Italian ICT company, donated 350 RFG tags to the Contrada Sant’Ambrogio for installation under the ceramic flooring of the new manor house.
The manor house and future social projects
Covering an area of more than 200 square metres, the tags allow blind people to move independently inside the manor house without the need for accompaniment. At the inauguration of the new manor house on 1 May, Ermenegildo Pizzo, Grand Prior of Contrada Sant’Ambrogio, said, ‘Our Contrada has focused on social issues over the past two years. We have participated in collecting food to donate to the local Caritas branch and worked with cancer associations.’ Future goals include using tags by Partitalia to create an event hall and organise exhibitions that are accessible to blind people. The events include young people, designed to give a powerful impetus to culture and traditions tied to the history of the Battle of Legnano in 1176.
The 'talking' floor
RFG tags — an acronym for radio frequency ground, a special type of RFID tag designed for installation under tactile indicators — are read by an electronic stick equipped with an antenna. Via a designated app, the tags communicate with the smartphone via a short-range radio wave system. They send voice messages, which can be multilingual, with an unlimited duration and audible via speakerphone or headset. The blind person downloads maps from the application in a light text format. These are read when the person with the stick touches a specific point.
Mariano Iervolino, CEO of JKJ, the ICT company that developed the technology, explains: ‘In an urban environment, for example, we provide information about the street being crossed. We call it a tactile navigation system because it touches exact points where the information is recited. One of our slogans for this is “Touch the message” because touch is a residual sense for blind people.’ Moreover, compared to other technologies which are approximate to two or three metres, those based on RFG tags are approximate to only 60 centimetres, ensuring higher security.
These systems are scalable. Indeed, they are used in urban contexts, such as stations and airports. This allows blind people to move around independently and safely, feeling fully integrated in an environment that is not only accessible, but also welcoming.
