5. Discussion

This work combined a smartphone-based survey using geolocation, photos and manual data entry together with two 3D imaging technologies. The results allow conclusions to be drawn about the relative merits of these approaches for our strategic goal: enabling better data collection on streetscape accessibility to drive improvements that benefit wheelchair users and the mobility impaired.

5.1 Comparison of Methods

Table 2 summarizes the methods' performance against our criteria of time, cost, ease of use and data quality. Methods differed substantially in their cost, with the LiDAR scanner generating extremely high quality outputs but at a prohibitive cost. While equipment cost is low for a smartphone-based method, at present this does not allow for 3D imaging. As such, while a great deal of useful data is generated, the most cost-efficient method does not allow for accurate slope measurements or for extraction of additional measurements during post-processing.