Purple tape is stretched in a straight line across a large area surrounded by trees. A woman with a smartphone strapped to her waist and a relay race number with the number 6 on it is running along the line of the tape.

NEWS

📢 Since March 2024, we are holding a regular trial run events of Project Guideline at Yokohama Rapport Sports & Cultural Centre for Persons with Disabilities. For more details, please see the information on Yokohama Rapport website.

Project Guideline: Towards helping everyone to run freely

Project Guideline is an early-stage research project exploring how Google AI can help people with visual impairments run freely by themselves.

In Japan, around 60 percent of the population exercises routinely.

However, that number drops to around 30 percent amongst people with visual impairments.

Fiscal 2020 Research Study on Promoting Participation in Sports by Disabled Persons / Public Opinion Survey on Status of Sports Practices (Japan Sports Agency)

Enjoying sport and having the opportunity to participate is a right granted to everyone by law. However, this right is not always a reality for those with various disabilities. For example, the simple freedom to run alone is an almost impossible dream for those with visual impairments.

“Is there a way to use technology to enable runners with visual impairments to run by themselves?”

This question was posed to us by Thomas Panek, President and CEO of Guiding Eyes for the Blind and accomplished marathon runner in the United States, and it became our starting point. Everyone should be able to pursue their own physical potential freely and independently. We started this experiment as the first small step toward achieving such a society.

We believe in building products that work for everyone. Making use of now widely adopted smartphones and headphones, we built the first prototypes together with Thomas and announced Project Guideline in the United States in 2020.

As Parasports and sports in general gained more attention in 2021, we announced the next stage of the project in Japan. Masamitsu Misono, a technology advocate for the blind community, accomplished runner, and person who is blind totally, was our first partner.

Click here for a video with Japanese audio description.

Towards a world where everyone can pursue their fullest potential

In 2022, we got together with NPO Achilles International Japan, an organization that connects people with disabilities and able-bodied people to enjoy running and walking together. We helped visually impaired runners participate in the ASICS World Ekiden 2022, a virtual Ekiden race that connects digital sashes in teams of six, without any escort runners. As a result, all six runners ran their segment with the help of Project Guideline and completed the 42.195km in 4 hours 29 minutes 44 seconds. The team competed equally against other teams of able-bodied athletes from all over the world.

There are countless ways to enjoy running. You can run by yourself , run with a friend or compete with like-minded runners. It shouldn’t matter if a person has a disability or not. We had the opportunity to demonstrate how a team of visually-impaired runners could compete equally against teams of able-bodied athletes through a virtual race and with Project Guideline’s technology. The challenge highlights how Project Guideline has the potential to help everyone pursue their fullest potential.

Click here for a video with Japanese audio description.

In 2024, with the cooperation of Yokohama Rapport Sports & Cultural Centre for Persons with Disabilities, Project Guideline will take a new step forward. We will introduce Project Guideline to the underground track of the Yokohama Rapport and regularly hold programs that allow visually impaired runners to experience Project Guideline. Through this, we will create an environment where we can provide more runners with the experience of "running freely and by themselves" and receive feedback to make Project Guideline a better technology.

How Project Guideline works

Project Guideline uses image recognition technology leveraging on-device machine learning that runs on Android smartphones. It identifies a colored line on the ground, determines whether the line is to the left, right or center of the runner, and sends audio signals through headphones worn by the runner. Based on that feedback, the runner can correct their running position to stay on the line and enjoy their run.
Animation showing how Project Guideline communicates to users through sound.
It’s easy for the human eye to identify a line on the road, but asking a machine to process that information is no easy task. The camera worn by the runner shakes constantly, and when outside, the direction and brightness of light changes continually. Shadows and leaves can cover the course, and even the color of the ground itself is not constant. You also have to address any curves in the course.
Animation showing how Project Guideline recognizes line directions and angles.
To make accurate decisions under these varying conditions, we developed an image recognition AI  model that utilizes TensorFlow™, an open-source library for machine learning published by Google. We have improved the accuracy and performance of the system in varying conditions, by gathering video data from as many situations as possible to train the model to recognize different environments. In addition, we have combined it with technologies such as Google's ARCore augmented reality (AR) platform to further improve spatial recognition capabilities, allowing us to develop features such as notifying runners of curves in advance and detecting obstacles in the future.

Contributing to the Community through Open Source

In 2023, we open-sourced Project Guideline as a way to contribute to the community of people working on technological innovation, primarily in the field of accessibility. The source code of the core technology we developed, as well as the pre-trained image recognition model and 3D simulator, are available for free to anyone. This allows developers and researchers around the world to use Project Guideline's technology for new accessibility initiatives or even apply it to technical development in completely new fields.
A blind woman and a male guide runner in yellow shirts running in a park. They are holding a tether rope.
Two runners holding a pink colored tether rope.
About 20 Achilles International Japan members gather in Yoyogi Park on a sunny autumn day. They are listening to a man speaking into a microphone.
Female runner petting a black guide dog
Purple tape is stretched in a straight line across a large area surrounded by trees. A woman with a smartphone strapped to her waist and an Ekiden race bib with the number "1" on it is running along the purple line..
Purple tape is stretched in a straight line across a large area. A man wearing a smartphone on his waist and an Ekiden race bib with the number 2 on it is running along the line of the tape.
Two men wearing yellow shirts and Ekiden race bibs with 3 and 4 written on them are chatting and smiling, tapping each other on the shoulder. They are wearing bone-conduction headphones in their ears.
A man in a white hat, yellow shirt, and sunglasses, wearing an Ekiden race bib number with a 5 on it, is running along the line of the tape.
Purple tape is placed over blue racing track. A man wearing bone conduction headphones and a smartphone on his waist walks with a smile on his face and a man in a white shirt accompanies him.
Photo: A blind male test runner touches and checks the yellow guideline tape on the running track.
Photo: A male test runner walks along the yellow guideline tape on the running track along with sighted team staff members.
Photo: A female test runner wearing an eye shade takes a short run along the guideline tape.
Photo: A blind male test runner walks along the yellow guideline tape on the running track along with the team staff.
Photo: A male test runner wearing an eyeshade, walking along the guideline tape.
Photo: Blind runner Mr. Misono walks along the yellow guideline tape with his wife Tomoko Misono and the team staff.
Photo: Mr. Misono runs alone along the guideline tape by the ocean and the beach at dawn.
Photo: Mr. Misono runs alone along the course next to the sea at dawn.
Photo: Thirteen test runners and staff pose for a group photo. They are smiling and wearing Hero's Project T-shirts.
Photo: A female blind high school student walks on the course while checking the behavior of the app.
Photo: A male high school student wearing an eye shade walks on the course while checking the behavior of the app.
Photo: A male blind runner wearing soccer kit running lightly along the yellow guideline tape on the course, whilst the staff watch over him

    Partners

    Project Guideline is an on-going project that continues to incorporate new technology and improve user experience. We recognize the importance of involving members of the visually impaired community in the design and engineering processes, which is why we work with visually impaired runners to test Project Guideline and receive direct feedback on how to make the system safer and more user-friendly. To achieve this, we are collaborating with the following partners and conducting events and field tests for data collection and user feedback.

    Additionally, we are implementing a program to allow more people to experience Project Guideline with the cooperation of Yokohama Rapport Sports & Cultural Centre for Persons with Disabilities. For more details, please see the information on Yokohama Rapport website.

    Similarly, we are seeking partners nationwide to introduce Project Guideline to facilities and implement programs for visually impaired runners. If you are interested in this program for your municipality or organization, please contact us via the Google Form.