CAREER: Adaptive Electro-Braille: A New Tactile Sensory Substitution and Assistive Technology for the Blind and Visually Impaired

职业：自适应电子盲文：一种针对盲人和视障人士的新型触觉替代和辅助技术

• 批准号: 1352006
• 负责人: Yantao Shen
• 金额: $ 41.88万
• 依托单位: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-05-01 至 2020-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1352006&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Adaptive; Electro; Braille; New

Proposal Number: 1352006P.I.: Yantao ShenInstitution: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada-RenoTitle: CAREER: Adaptive Electro-Braille: A New Tactile Sensory Substitution and Assistive Technology for the Blind and Visually ImpairedBroader Significance & Importance:Advanced assistive technologies are critical to the well-being of the blind and visually impaired (BVI). Touch sensitive displays that can be operated by a variety of users are needed to gain information by the BVI community. Currently technology is not equipped with features that permit the BVI anytime/anywhere access and are not adaptable and convenient for use. This research project will develop tools that are based on electronic scanning technology adapted to a finger-wearable touch device that can be used to scan a variety of objects including Braille text.Technical Description:In order to assist the Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) community to "see", assistive tactile displays that are adaptive, sensorized, individualized, and portable are required. Currently available tactile assistive displays are not equipped with features that permit the BVI to "see" conveniently. This long-term CAREER goal is to facilitate the advances in electrotactile sensing, rendering, and computation into the next generation of smart, individual perception-centered, and portable assistive display to aid the BVI as well to establish a user-friendly and networked infrastructure for enhancing healthcare, learning capabilities and education. In particular, the research objective of this CAREER proposal is to investigate an electrotactile based Braille display technology that is electronic scanning-style, adaptive tactile preference rendering, and finger-wearable. This technology is based on electrical stimulation, and has both online skin bioimpedance sensing and tactile preference rendering functions, called E-Braille. This technology will allow the BVI to conveniently perform important tasks, such as reading, typing in Braille, browsing the Internet, engaging in online conversations, and perceiving graphics. Further, combined with cyber-infrastructure network technology, E-Braille will allow the BVI to conveniently access more documents, books, and libraries, anytime and anywhere. An equally important goal is the recruitment and training of the next generation of engineers who will emerge not only with a solid background in engineering and science disciplines but also have the passion and ability to contribute their expertise in multidisciplinary assistive and rehabilitative engineering areas. The success of this CAREER project will facilitate research to aid the BVI and will advance our fundamental understanding of electrotactile mechanisms. The major research focus is the development of an adaptive, individual perception-centered, and electrotactile-based Braille display for the BVI, known as E-Braille, which is unique as a fingerwearable electronic device, and will conveniently provide the BVI unlimited access to the information world. The display also will be the first of its kind to include online identification of individual tactile preferences as well as the ability for adaptive tactile preference tuning/rendering for individuals. Currently available Braille displays do not have these features. This CAREER proposal aims to advance the state of the art in portable seeing- assistive devices for the BVI. It will accomplish this goal through the development of EBraille, an affordable and innovative electrical stimulation-based Braille tactile display. This system will offer fast, refreshable information exchange. The proposed adaptive E-Braille will dramatically improve the quality of life of the BVI by allowing them to live more independently and with greater ease. As an integrative part of this project, the PI will develop educational materials inspired by the research results, directed toward students in multidisciplinary engineering program. The research results also will inspire an outreach effort aimed at attracting K-12 students, women, under-represented minorities, and persons with disabilities (e.g., the BVI) to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines as well as to participate in this exciting and cutting-edge research project. Finally, both research and educational results will be disseminated by means of presentations at conferences, publications in peer-reviewed journals, web portals, magazines, newspapers, TV and other media, and to the community involved in BVI assistive technology and systems

提案编号：1352006p.i。：Yantao Sheninstitution：内华达州内华达大学 - 伦敦大学NSHE董事会：职业：自适应Electro-Braille：一种新的触觉感觉替代和盲目和视觉障碍的辅助技术，且具有障碍者的意义和重要性：先进的辅助技术对造成疫苗的疾病和疫苗的势力远见。 需要通过各种用户操作的触摸敏感显示器才能获得BVI社区的信息。 当前，技术不具备任何允许随时/任何地方访问BVI的功能，并且不适合使用且可方便使用。 该研究项目将开发基于电子扫描技术的工具，该技术适用于手指磨损的触摸设备，该工具可用于扫描包括盲文文本在内的各种物体。技术描述：为了帮助盲人和视觉上的受损（BVI）社区，以“看到”“见”，辅助触觉显示，这些辅助触觉显示是适应性的，具有自适应的，具有良性的，suilted，suild sumport and Suppor的。 当前可用的触觉辅助显示器没有配备使BVI方便地“查看”的功能。这个长期的职业目标是促进电动性感应，渲染和计算的进步，以智能，以感知为中心的智能，以感知为中心和便携式辅助展示，以帮助BVI建立一个用户友好型和网络的基础架构，以增强医疗保健，学习能力和教育。特别是，这项职业建议的研究目标是研究基于电子扫描风格的基于电动的盲文显示技术，适应性触觉偏好渲染以及手指磨损。该技术基于电刺激，并且具有在线皮肤生物阻抗感测和触觉偏好功能，称为e-Braille。这项技术将使BVI可以方便地执行重要任务，例如阅读，在盲文中打字，浏览互联网，进行在线对话以及感知图形。此外，结合网络基础结构网络技术，E-Braille将允许BVI随时随地便利地访问更多文档，书籍和图书馆。 一个同样重要的目标是招募和培训下一代工程师，他们不仅将具有扎实的工程和科学学科背景，而且具有热情和能力，可以在多学科辅助和康复工程领域贡献其专业知识。这个职业项目的成功将有助于研究以帮助BVI，并将提高我们对电动机制的基本理解。主要的研究重点是开发自适应，以感知为中心的，基于电动性的盲文显示器，称为E-BRAILLE，它是一种可作为手指装饰的电子设备，并将方便地提供BVI无限制地访问信息世界。该显示也将是第一个包括在线识别单个触觉偏好以及对个人自适应触觉调整/渲染的能力的同类显示。当前可用的盲文显示器没有这些功能。该职业建议旨在在BVI的便携式辅助设备上推进艺术状况。它将通过Ebraille的发展来实现这一目标，Ebraille是一种负担得起且创新的基于电刺激的盲文触觉显示。该系统将提供快速，可享受的信息交换。拟议的自适应电子布雷尔（E-Braille）将通过允许他们更加独立，更轻松地生活，从而显着改善BVI的生活质量。作为该项目的综合组成部分，PI将开发受研究结果启发的教育材料，该材料针对多学科工程计划的学生。该研究结果还将激发旨在吸引K-12学生，妇女，代表性不足的少数民族以及残疾人（例如BVI）来研究科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）纪律以及参与这个令人兴奋和尖端的研究项目的研究。最后，研究和教育成果将通过会议上的演讲，同行评审期刊的出版物，网站，杂志，报纸，电视和其他媒体以及参与BVI辅助技术和系统涉及的社区的出版物进行传播。