SBIR Phase II: A Dynamic Tactile Display for Visually Impaired Computer Users

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将创建一个具有实际产品外观、感觉和功能的动态触觉显示（DTD）原型，它将证明DTD比现有的屏幕阅读器技术更容易学习和使用计算机。家庭试用研究将允许一组用户在家中使用DTD一段较长的时间，以确定他们是否会继续喜欢使用它。第二阶段的技术发展将产生一种强大的界面工具，将计算机显示信息转换为直观的触觉格式，并使盲人和视力受损的用户更容易使用计算机工具。现代计算机软件和网页都是高度视觉化的。然而，数以百万计的盲人或严重视力受损的人，他们的视力障碍使他们无法看到标准的电脑屏幕。用户对现有计算机访问解决方案的挫败感很高，目前使用计算机的视障人士数量非常低——远低于一般人群的比例。如此低的计算机使用率表明，迫切需要为这些残疾人提供更好的计算机接入技术。DTD主要被开发为一种新的、更有效的接口，供视障用户使用基于windows的软件和体验Internet。随着计算机在日常的专业、教育和社会生活中变得越来越普遍，提供这样一种工具变得越来越重要。因此，DTD将作为一种手段，通过允许盲人和视障人士更多地使用计算机，使这些用户更接近于有视力的人所享有的使用，从而使他们更好地融入社会主流。DTD提供了一种新的人机界面模式，提供了一个环境，在这个环境中可以更多地了解触觉界面的设计和使用。它可以作为一个有用的平台，用于优化通过触摸进行的人/机器或人/人交互的触觉显示范例。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will create a Dynamic Tactile Display (DTD) prototype with the look, feel, and functionality of the real-world product, and it will demonstrate that the DTD makes it easier to learn and use computers than existing screen reader technology. An in-home trial study will allow a group of users to have the DTD over an extended period of time in their homes, to establish whether or not they continue to like to use it over time. Technical development during Phase II will produce a powerful interface tool that translates computer display information into an intuitive, tactile format, and allows much greater accessibility of computer tools to the blind and visually impaired user. Modern computer software and web pages are highly visually oriented. However, there are millions of blind or severely visually impaired individuals whose visual disability prevents them from seeing the standard computer screen. User frustration with existing computer access solutions is high, and the number of visually disabled people currently using computers is very low--much lower than the rate in the general population. This low rate of computer use indicates a serious need for better computer access technology for this disabled population.The DTD is primarily being developed as a new, more effective interface for visually impaired users to use windows-based software and experience the Internet. Providing such a tool is increasingly important as computers become more pervasive in everyday professional, educational, and social life. The DTD will thus serve as a means to improve the inclusion of the blind and visually impaired in the mainstream of society by allow these users greater access to computers, access which is closer to that enjoyed by the sighted population. Providing a new human/computer interface modality, the DTD proffers an environment in which to understand more about the design and use of tactile interfaces. It may serve as a useful platform for optimization of the tactile display paradigm for human/machine or human/human interactions through touch.