CHS: Small: Non-visual Access to Graphical Information Using a Vibro-Audio Display

CHS：小型：使用振动音频显示器以非视觉方式访问图形信息

• 批准号: 1425337
• 负责人: Nicholas Giudice
• 金额: $ 49.99万
• 依托单位: University of Maine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1425337&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CHS; Small; Non; visual; Access

Vision impairment is estimated by the World Health Organization as effecting 12 million people in the United States and as many as 285 million people worldwide, and these numbers are projected to double by 2030 due to the aging of our population. Lack of access to non-textual material such as graphs and maps is a major impediment for the blind, because the ability to apprehend and accurately interpret such information is critical for success in the classroom and in the workplace, as well as for independent travel. The inability to exploit this information helps explain why only about 11% of blind or low-vision persons have a bachelor's degree, why only 25% of blind people are employed, and why almost 70% of blind individuals do not navigate independently outside of their home. A major step toward improving these numbers, as well as the overall quality of life for members of the blind and low-vision community, would be to solve the longstanding challenge of affording low-cost and effective access to key graphical material.The PI's goal in this project is to develop and evaluate a highly intuitive tool for doing just that. To this end, he will explore a multimodal combination of vibro-tactile, audio, and kinesthetic cues that can be generated by modern touchscreen tablets (especially smartphones), to convey useful visual information in real-time. Benefits of this approach include portability, affordability, and flexibility of use for multiple critical and common applications such as those enumerated above. The PI argues that considering these design factors from the outset, in conjunction with principled empirical investigations to evaluate and enhance information perceptibility interleaved with frequent prototype testing and iterative refinement, with tight involvement of members of the target population in all phases of the research, will ensure that project outcomes significantly reduce the graphical information gap between blind persons and their sighted peers. The research will make important contributions to our understanding of how blind and low-vision individuals process non-visual information, which is essential for rendering perceptually salient multimodal graphics, and will also help establish best practices both for rendering these graphics using a vibro-audio interface implemented on touchscreen enabled devices, as well as for similar future specialized interface development efforts.

世界卫生组织估计，视力障碍是在美国的1200万人和全球多达2.85亿人口造成的，由于我们人口的老龄化，这些人数预计到2030年将翻一番。 缺乏获得非文本材料（例如图形和地图）是盲人的主要障碍，因为能够逮捕和准确解释此类信息的能力对于在教室和工作场所的成功以及独立旅行至关重要。 无法利用这些信息有助于解释为什么只有大约11％的盲人或低视率患者拥有学士学位，为什么只有25％的盲人被雇用，以及为什么几乎70％的盲人没有在家外独立导航。 改善这些数字的主要一步，以及盲人和低视觉社区成员的整体生活质量，将是解决为低成本和有效访问关键图形材料的长期挑战。该项目的PI目标是开发和评估一种高度直观的工具。 为此，他将探索可通过现代触摸屏平板电脑（尤其是智能手机）生成的氛围，音频和动力学提示的多模式组合，以实时传达有用的视觉信息。 这种方法的好处包括可移植性，负担能力和用于多个关键和常见应用程序（例如上述列举的应用程序）的灵活性。 PI认为，从一开始就考虑这些设计因素，结合原则的经验研究，以评估和增强信息的可感知性与频繁的原型测试和迭代精炼相互交织，并且目标人群在研究的所有阶段都紧密参与研究，将确保该项目的图形信息可显着减少图形信息的视野范围和他们的景点。 这项研究将对我们对盲人和低视觉个人如何处理非视觉信息的理解做出重要贡献，这对于渲染具有感知的显着多模式图形至关重要，还将有助于建立最佳实践，既可以使用启用触摸屏的设备上实现的Vibro-Audio界面来渲染这些图形，又可以为未来的专业界面开发而实现。

项目成果

Comparing Haptic Pattern Matching on Tablets and Phones: Large Screens Are Not Necessarily Better

比较平板电脑和手机上的触觉模式匹配：大屏幕不一定更好

• DOI: 10.1097/opx.0000000000001274
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Optometry and Vision Science
• 影响因子: 1.4
• 作者: Tennison, Jennifer L.;Carril, Zachary S.;Giudice, Nicholas A.;Gorlewicz, Jenna L.
• 通讯作者: Gorlewicz, Jenna L.