Accessible Electrostatic Surface Haptics: Towards an Interactive Audiotactile Map Interface for People With Visual Impairments

  • Tactile models, such as floor plans of a familiar or unfamiliar environment, can be helpful for people with visual impairments to grasp and interpret spatial information. Such plans are usually fabricated physically in a time-consuming process and are not interactive. This paper suggests presenting tactile floor plans using surface haptic feedback on an electrostatic display to overcome these limitations. Besides audiohaptically exploring tactile floor plans, our prototype also allows for voice interaction and demonstrates the control of smart home devices in this context. The evaluation was conducted in two stages with eight participants with visual impairments: First, it was investigated how individual rooms can be identified and assigned with electrostatic tactile feedback over a common dot matrix display. Second, the generation of a mental map when exploring an interactive detailed floor plan with several rooms was evaluated. Our results show that electrostatic haptic feedback enables people with visual impairments to recognizeTactile models, such as floor plans of a familiar or unfamiliar environment, can be helpful for people with visual impairments to grasp and interpret spatial information. Such plans are usually fabricated physically in a time-consuming process and are not interactive. This paper suggests presenting tactile floor plans using surface haptic feedback on an electrostatic display to overcome these limitations. Besides audiohaptically exploring tactile floor plans, our prototype also allows for voice interaction and demonstrates the control of smart home devices in this context. The evaluation was conducted in two stages with eight participants with visual impairments: First, it was investigated how individual rooms can be identified and assigned with electrostatic tactile feedback over a common dot matrix display. Second, the generation of a mental map when exploring an interactive detailed floor plan with several rooms was evaluated. Our results show that electrostatic haptic feedback enables people with visual impairments to recognize and understand graphic elements like rooms and a floor plan. However, this entails significantly more time for exploration and a higher cognitive workload when compared to a comparable but more expensive dot matrix display, though spatial and semantic smart home contextual information can be added through a voice interface, such as ”What is the room’s name I am touching?” or ”Turn on the power socket in this room.” Our preliminary but innovative approach reveals the initial potential of electrostatic feedback for accessibility and aims to help situate the opportunities and challenges in this context for wider dissemination.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author:Selina Feitl, Julian Kreimeier, Timo Götzelmann
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3529190.3534781
Parent Title (English):Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments
Publisher:ACM
Place of publication:New York, NY, USA
Document Type:conference proceeding (article)
Language:English
Date of first Publication:2022/07/11
Reviewed:Begutachtet/Reviewed
Release Date:2024/11/25
Pagenumber:10
First Page:522
Last Page:531
institutes:Fakultät Informatik
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