Virtual and Realworld Wayfinding for Visually Impaired People

Virtual and Real-World Wayfinding

for Visually Impaired People

[email protected]

Introduction

Real-world Wayfindng

Virtual Wayfinding

Graphic Representation

Sensory Substitution

Passive Technologies

Acoustic Technologes

Haptic Technologies

Proposal

Links

References

Virtual and Real-World Wayfinding for Visually Impaired People

IntroductionHow do you describe a sunset to someone who is blind?

Introduction


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How can we share information about the natural world?

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What unique abilities to blind people possess?

Yes I am BLIND...But I SEE the world thru the sound of Music by SwEeT_AnGeL_i.Yes I am blindCant u seeI am blindTo the discrimination made on caste and creed

Yes I am blindCant you seeI am blindTo the emotion of Lust and Greed.

Yes I am blindCant you feelI am blindTo the pain that comes from jealousy

Yes I am blindCant you seeI am blindTo the reasons that pave way for wars due to Fallacy.

I do see the world, through the sound of MusicWhich is made of Love, Joy and HarmonyI do see the world, through the eyes of my SoulWhich believes in Humanity as its ultimate Goal

I do see the world, through the words of CompassionWhich helps me nurture my spiritual roleI do see the world, with the touch of passionThat comes from the people who have heart of gold.

Sometimes I just wonder,Why cant the world be…BLIND like me?????Be blind to hatred, caste, lust and greedAnd see the world as I see.....@from a blind girl's point of view, written by Sweet Angel. (Flickr.com)

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How have blind people overcome their challenges?

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What has led blind people to experience great successes?

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How can our biases harm or inhibit blind people?

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How can we create tools that support their creativity?

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How can we help blind people be independently mobile?

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How can we help blind people be independently mobile?

How can we address varied levels of blindness?

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Real-world Wayfinding - Difficulties

‘lack much of the information needed for planning detours around obstacles and hazards, and have little information about distant landmarks, heading and self-velocity’ [Loomis JM, Golledge RG, Klatzky RL, 2001]

we need to determine - ‘what spatial information should be given to visually impaired pedestrians, in what form and at which particular locations’ [Kitchen RM, Jacobson D, 1997]

context-aware computing is only helpful if it ‘adapts according to its location of use, the collection of nearby people and objects, as well as changes to those objects over time’ [Schilit B, Theimer M, 1994]

maps can change for one particular area depending on the: (1) time of day (i.e. day/night)

(2) season (e.g. summer vs. winter)

(3) direction of travel (travelling the same route forward or back).

[Jonsson E, 2002]

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Real-world Wayfinding - Findings

Different forms of visual impairment might also impact on cognitive map development [Bradley, Nicholas A. and Dunlop, Mark D., 2005]

[Bradley, Nicholas A. and Dunlop, Mark D., 2005]

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Important aspects of a user’s context are ‘where you are, who you are with, and what resources are nearby’. [Schilit B, Adams N, Want R, 1994]

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Important aspects of a user’s context are ‘where you are, who you are with, and what resources are nearby’. [Schilit B, Adams N, Want R, 1994]

Directions consisting of a reduced amount of textual-structural and textual area/street information, and incorporated sensory, motion, and social contact information are more optimal for helping visually impaired people navigate. [Bradley, Nicholas A. and Dunlop, Mark D., 2005]

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Virtual Wayfinding - Difficulties

Many sites are not meeting accessibility standards and can not be quickly or easily navigated non-visually [Asakawa, 2005]

[Asakawa, C., Fukuda, K., Maeda, J., 2004] >>>>>>>>>>>>

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Even though the Web is an extremely useful tool for blind users to obtain information, it has been becoming much visual and thus inaccessible to blind users. [Asakawa, 2005]

[Asakawa, C., Fukuda, K., Maeda, J., 2004] >>>>>>>>>>>>

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Even though the Web is an extremely useful tool for blind users to obtain information, it has been becoming much visual and thus inaccessible to blind users. [Asakawa, 2005]

visual impairness: people with visual disabilities (currently relying on “screen readers” software to browse websites) still experience frustration in getting a communication which is far from being effective through the aural channel. [Bolchini, Davide, Colazzo, Sebastiano, Paolini, Paolo and Vitali, Daniele, 2006]

[http://www.apple.com/accessibility/macosx/vision.html] >>

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Virtual Wayfinding - Solutions

The aDesigner is not an assistive technology program, but rather it is a disability simulator, which was developed for Web developers to help them ensure that their pages are accessible and usable for people with vision disabilities [http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/adesigner]

Strategies are being developed to improve aural information architectures - acoustically scannable [Bolchini et al, 2006]

Two main languages lead the market in the field of voice applications: VoiceXML [http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/] SALT [http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/salt/default.aspx].

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Graphic Information - Difficulties

U.S. Federal law requires that all government information on the Web be available to users with disabilities, and other governments around the world have similar laws.[www.section508.gov]

The paradox is that government agencies are presenting more data on the Web through choropleth maps, but at the same time, these government agencies are increasingly required to make that data accessible to people with disabilities. [Zhao, H , Plaisant, C. and Shneiderman, B. Lazar, J., 2008]

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Graphic Information - Solutions

Sonification - Different acoustic variables such as pitch, volume, timbre and position can be used to represent quantitative, qualitative and categorical aspects of the information [Franklin and Roberts, 2003]

Could be used to assist visual impaired people in exploring georeferenced data like coordinated maps and tables [Zhao, H et al, 2008]

toolkits were developed to help researchers attempt different data-to-sound attribute mappings [Pauletto and Hunt or Walker and Cothran, 2003]

Research has shown that musical sounds enhance numeric data comprehension [Ramloll et al., 2001]

Humans can interpret a quick sonified overview ofsimple data graphs [Flowers et al., 1997; Brown et al.,

[http://www.icad.org/]

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Seeing through Touch

<<<" The person in the foreground is Deaf and blind. She is learning how to use a computer. Her interpreter is translating the instructor's comments to the student. The method used by many who are Deaf-blind is called tactile sign language." -Cobalt123 Flickr.com

For more about tactile sign language:

[en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactile_signing]

[gupress.gallaudet.edu/excerpts/TSLintro3.html]

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Seeing through Sound

<< " A camera scans the visual field. The images are converted into a soundscape by the computer. How the sounds might "look": a brightness represented by volume; elevation is represented by pitch."

" Meijer, a research scientist in the Netherlands, has developed a technology called the vOICe, which allows you to represent visual information - to "see" - with sounds."

- The New York Times[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/magazine/11ideas_section3-14.html?ex=1291957200&en=3c72cf9fa46bbb06&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss]

Merabet L. , Battelli, L., Obretenova, S., Maguire , P., Meijer S. and Pascual-Leone, A. ,(2009)

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Passive Technologies - Braille<<< Braille on a Canadian Banknote

Adding Braille to Banknotes or Currency could be helpful

Variations in the size of American currency could also be helpful to blind people

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Passive Technologies - Cane<<< Foldable Walking Stick

Blind people use walking sticks the search for obstacles that they may encounter on their walking path

Some canes can be easily folded away

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Passive Technologies - Textured Paths<<< Textured Paths [Blind in Japan by ben.thomas at Flickr.com]

These detectable directional systems are surface tiles which contain a series of raised parallel ridges or plateaus which indicate direction and orientation. They are used extensively in Australia and Japan to facilitate blind people in navigating transits systems and public areas

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Passive Technologies - Time & Orientation(LEFT) Compass that tactilely represent directions - helpful for orientation

(RIGHT) Watch with flip-open face makes it possible to tactilely read time

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Acoustic - Screen Readers<<< JAWS Screenreader User

The most commonly used screen readers:

JAWS Screen Reader - http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp

Windows Eyes Screen Reader - http://www.gwmicro.com/Window-Eyes/

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Acoustic - Navigation<<< Sonic Pathfinder

The Sonic Pathfinder is a head-mounted pulse-echo sonar system controlled by a microcomputer. The five ultra-sonic transducers which are mounted on the head-band comprise three receivers, one pointing left, one right and one straight ahead, and two transmitters. The two transmitters are angled so as to irradiate the user's pathway with ultra-sonic energy. Echoes from objects lying within this pathway are received by the three receiving transducers and this information is processed by the on-board computer. The output of the device, the display, is fed to one or other of the two ear pieces depending on whether the object is on the left or the right of the user or to both ear pieces if the object lies directly in the travel path.[http://www.sonicpathfinder.org/]

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Acoustic - GPS TrekkerGPS for people who are visually impaired[http://www.humanware.com]

<<< Trekkor & Trekkor Breeze

Trekker Breeze lets you:• know where you are and where you are going• what is around in your location (public services and businesses)• Easily retrace your steps if you get lost. Simply push a button.• Record the routes when you learn them with sighted people so that you can use them later without assistance.• Record landmarks along your route, for example to get to your favorite restaurant or a friend’s house.• Get the step-by-step instructions from start to end.

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Haptic - Refreshable Braille Display<<< Refreshable Braille displays can be used in conjuction with screen readers like WIndow-Eyes, JAWS or Apple's built-in screen reader to read text from the internet

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader]

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Haptic - Navigation<<< The Miniguide uses ultrasonic echo-location to detect objects. The aid vibrates to indicate the distance to objects - the faster the vibration rate the nearer the object.

There is also an earphone socket which can be used to provide sound feedback.

The aid has various distance modes for senses ranges of :

• 4 meter• 2 meter• 1 meter• half meter• 8 meter

[http://www.gdp-research.com.au]

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Haptic - Public Transit<<< Cross walk signal for the blind. Vibrates to let people know when it is safe to cross

[from Rachel Cotton on Flickr.com]

(BELOW) Transit system signage and ticket exchange in Japan[from ben.thomas on Flickr.com]

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Sonifier - a portable hand-held device for sonification

• gives blind students access to info in graphs

• 8-10 inch screen with adjustable resolution

• audio from speaker and headphone jack

• Displays XML formatted messages

• Recieves datasets for bar, line, scatter plot and choropleth map graphs through USB

• Button to toggle between modes - one for verbal descriptions and one for sonification

• Recessed touch surfaces - One larger surface and two thinner ajacent surfaces - touch with stylis to hear key ranges and associated sounds

USB Port

Toggle Button

SpeakerHeadphones

Key

Key

Graph Quadrants

Stylus

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Links

Web content accessibility guidelines - http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php

JAWS Screen Reader - http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp

Windows Eyes Screen Reader - http://www.gwmicro.com/Window-Eyes/

Mac technologies for the Visually Impaired - http://www.apple.com/accessibility/macosx/vision.html

Government Information Standards for People with Disabilities - www.section508.gov

Disability Simulator (Windows Only) - http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/adesigner

Wayfinding Technologies - http://www.construction-innovation.info/index.php?id=836

Universal Low Vision Aids - http://www.ulva.com/

Access Watch: Blind users review accessibility of mainstream software - http://www.accesswatch.info/

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References

Asakawa, Chieko (2005) What's the Web Like If You Can't See It? W4A at WWW2005, 10th May 2005, Chiba, JapanCopyright 2005 ACM

Bolchini, Davide, Colazzo, Sebastiano, Paolini, Paolo and Vitali, Daniele (2006) Designing Aural Information Architectures. SIGDOC'06, October 18–20, 2006, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA.

Bradley, Nicholas A. and Dunlop, Mark D. (2005) An Experimental Investigation into Wayfinding Directions for Visually Impaired People. Published online: June 22, 2005 Springer-Verlag London

Bradyn JA (1985) A review of mobility aids and means of assessment. In: Warren DH, Strelow ER (eds) Electronic spatial sensing for the blind. Martinus Nijhoff, pp 13–27

Brown, L., Brewster, S. A., Ramloll, R., Burton, M., AND Riedel, B. 2003. Design guidelinesfor audio presentation of graphs and tables. In Proceedings of the International Conferenceon Auditory Display.

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References

Flowers, J. H., Buhman, D. C., and Turnage, K. D. 1997. Cross-modal equivalence of visualand auditory scatterplots for exploring bivariate data samples. Human Factors 39, 3, 340–350.

Franklin, K. M. and Roberts, J. C. 2003. Pie chart sonification. In Proceedings of the AnnualIEEE Symposium on Information Visualization. 4–9.

Jonsson E (2002) Inner navigation: why we get lost and how we find our way. Scribner, New York, pp 27–126

Kay L (1980) Air sonar with acoustical display of spatial information. In: Busnel RG, Fish JF (eds) Animal sonar system. Plenum, New York, pp 769–816

Kitchen RM, Jacobson D (1997) Techniques to collect and analyze the cognitive map knowledge of people with visual impairments or blindness: Issues of validity. J Visual Impair Blind 360–376

Loomis JM, Golledge RG, Klatzky RL (2001) GPS-Based navigation system for the visually impaired. In: Barfield W, Caudell T (eds) Fundamentals of wearable computers and augmented reality. Lawrence Erbaum Associates, Mahwah NJ, pp 429–446

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References

Merabet L. , Battelli, L., Obretenova, S., Maguire , P., Meijer S. and Pascual-Leone, A. ,(2009) ``Functional Recruitment of Visual Cortex for sound encoded object identification in the Blind,'' NeuroReport, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 132 - 138, January 2009 (doi: 10.1097/WNR.0b013e32832104dc).

Schilit B, Adams N, Want R (1994) Context-aware computing applications. In: First international workshop on mobile computing systems and applications pp 85–90

Schilit B, Theimer M (1994) Disseminating active map information to mobile hosts. IEEE Network 8(5):22–32

Takagi, H., Asakawa, C., Fukuda, K., Maeda, J., (2004) Accessibility Designer: Visualizing Usability for the Blind, In Proceedings of the 6th international ACM SIGACCESSconference on Assistive Technologies (ASSETS 2004), pp. 177-184

Zhao, H , Plaisant, C. and Shneiderman, B. Lazar, J. (2008) Data Sonification for Users with Visual Impairment: A Case Study with Georeferenced Data. (2008) ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)Volume 15 , Issue 1 (May 2008) Article No. 4

Virtual and Realworld Wayfinding for Visually Impaired People

Technology

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