Visio-Haptic Guidance and its Application to Reading

Principal researcher

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Description: For an individual who is blind, the ability to reach for an object is a slow and often frustrating activity. The ability to locate an object within the grasp of the individual would be of great assistance. This would allow for the individual who is blind to reach for the object in a more straightforward manner, rather than a slow sweeping motion across the field of reach of the individual. A hand held device using haptic feedback is proposed to allow the individual who is blind to locate objects within the grasp of the individual. Once the individual has a mental picture of the location of the object, the user can more directly reach for the object. Visio Haptic Guidance Device is comprised of a single hand graspable device capable of collecting video. The device will collect video which will be analyzed to locate the objects in the view of the camera. The analysis will provide haptic cues to the user indicate the position and number of the object in the view of the camera through the use of buzzers in a haptic glove of other haptic interface device. Using this haptic information, the user will determine the position of the object and more directly reach for and grab the device. The user will be able to sense the position of the device by aiming the camera at the object and triangulating its position where after the user will more directly reach for the object. The triangulation of the object will be accomplished by moving the camera in a user determined number.

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Last updated: 15/04/2008