Maps as a service: A systematic approach to the production of tactile and audio/vibrational maps for visually impaired users

地图即服务：为视障用户制作触觉和音频/振动地图的系统方法

• 批准号: 10720207
• 负责人: NICHOLAS A GIUDICE
• 金额: $ 36.78万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10720207
• 关键词: 3-Dimensional; Acoustics; Address; Area; Awareness; Cellular Phone; Cognition; Cognitive; Collaborations; Communities; Computer software; Confusion; Dangerousness; Data; Data Set; Destinations; Diffusion; Educational process of instructing; Engineering; Environment; Evaluation; Floor; Generations; Geographic Information Systems; Home; Image; Indoor environment; Information Sciences; Institution; Knowledge; Learning; Location; Maine; Maps; Modernization; Navigation System; Persons; Production; Published Comment; Reporting; Research; Research Activity; Route; San Francisco; Schools; Semantics; Series; Services; Specific qualifier value; Structure; Study Subject; System; Tactile; Techniques; Technology; Training; Twin Studies; Vision; Visual impairment; Visually Impaired Persons; Work; blind; computer science; design; effectiveness evaluation; experimental study; human subject; interest; multimodality; new technology; open source; research and development; skills; smartphone application; stem; technological innovation; tool; usability; vector; visual map; web app

Project Summary Mobility, orientation, and spatial awareness can be challenging for people who are blind. Navigating new or unfamiliar environments without sight can be confusing and stressful, and potentially dangerous. As a consequence, it has been reported that at least 30% of blind individuals do not make independent trips outside of their home. For sighted and blind travelers alike, maps represent a valuable tool for spatial cognition. Maps can be made accessible to blind users using tactile format, or as multimodal vibrational/audio maps (a format pioneered by co-I Giudice, himself a blind individual). Research has shown that, when given the opportunity to explore an accessible map beforehand (pre-journey learning), blind travelers may achieve better spatial awareness of locations, which may help with maintaining orientation and determining new routes. Tactile maps are traditionally created by professionals, often following “tricks of the trade” and using non-standardized symbols. Recently, there has been a push towards systematic approaches to tactile map creation that would enable wider diffusion and consistent spatial symbols rendering. Online services (e.g., TMAPS) have been created, that allow anyone to specify a certain region to be mapped, and have a tactile map automatically generated for that region, sourcing from an open access geographical information system. Existing systems for on-demand map creation, however, can only map outdoor areas. There is no such service for building indoors, and in fact, very little research work has addressed the systematic production of tactile indoor maps. Indoor environments are generally less structured than typical urban layouts. Moving about in a building may require spatial knowledge at multiple scales (from the general building structure to the internal layout of a room). And, unlike widely available GIS data sets, obtaining detailed floor plans in a format amenable for tactile map creation can be challenging. In this application, we propose research and development focusing on a system for the semi-automatic creation of accessible maps (in tactile and vibrational/audio format) of indoor environments. This work will stem from a prior web application (SIM, developed by PI Manduchi’s team) that allows anyone to trace an existing floor plan to generate an embossable map. Our research activities will be organized around the following Specific Aims: Facilitating acquisition and “vectorization” of floor plans (Aim 1); Automatic conversion of a vectorized map (expressed in terms of spatial primitives) to an accessible map at any desired scale, by means of cartographic generalization operators and carefully designed symbol sets (Aim 2); User studies with blind subjects, designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the maps produced by our new SIM system (Aim 3); Transferring the new SIM web app technology to our partner institution, the Vista Center for the Blind of Palo Alto, which will make it available as a service to interested stakeholders.

项目摘要 对于盲人的人来说，可能对流动性，方向和空间意识挑战。导航新或陌生 没有视力的环境会令人困惑，压力很大，并且可能危险。结果，已经 报道说，至少有30％的盲人不会在他们家外进行独立旅行。 对于视力和盲人旅行者，地图代表了空间认知的宝贵工具。可以制作地图 使用触觉格式或作为多模式振动/音频图的盲人用户可以访问（Co-I的格式 Giudice，他本人是盲人）。研究表明，当有机会探索可访问的机会时 事先地图（朱尼前学习），盲人旅行者可能会获得更好的空间意识，这可能 帮助保持方向并确定新路线。 传统上，触觉地图是由专业人士创建的，经常遵循“交易技巧”并使用非标准化 符号。最近，人们一直在推动系统的触觉图创建方法，这将启用 广泛的扩散和一致的空间符号渲染。在线服务（例如，TMAPS）已创建，允许 任何人都可以指定要映射的特定区域，并具有自动生成该区域的触觉图， 从开放访问地理信息系统中采购。 但是，现有的按需地图创建系统只能映射室外区域。没有这样的服务 在室内建造，实际上很少的研究工作已经解决了触觉室内地图的系统生产。 室内环境的结构通常不如典型的城市布局。在建筑物中四处走动可能需要 多个尺度的空间知识（从一般建筑结构到房间的内部布局）。而且，与众不同 可广泛可用的GIS数据集，以触觉地图创建的格式获得详细的平面图可以是 具有挑战性的。 在此应用程序中，我们建议研究和开发，重点是用于半自动创建的系统 室内环境的可访问地图（以触觉和振动/音频格式）。这项工作将源于先前的网络 应用程序（SIM，由Pi Manduchi团队开发），该应用程序允许任何人追踪现有的平面图以生成一个 可体温地图。我们的研究活动将围绕以下特定目的组织：促进收购 和平面图的“矢量化”（AIM 1）；自动转换向量图（以空间表示 原始图）通过制图概括运算符和仔细的任何规模访问地图 设计的符号集（AIM 2）；用盲目受试者进行用户研究，旨在评估地图的有效性 由我们的新SIMS系统生产（AIM 3）；将新的SIM SIM Web应用程序技术转移到我们的合作伙伴机构， 帕洛阿尔托百叶窗中心，这将作为有趣的利益相关者提供服务。