HCC: Small: Automatic Simplification Methods for Tactile Graphics

HCC：小：触觉图形的自动简化方法

• 批准号: 1218310
• 负责人: Dianne Pawluk
• 金额: $ 38.57万
• 依托单位: Virginia Commonwealth University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1218310&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: HCC; Small; Automatic; Simplification; Methods

Unfortunately for individuals who are blind and visually impaired, although access to text has greatly improved with computers, the computer has also greatly facilitated the ease of producing, storing, transmitting and using graphical representations to convey information. This has created a serious obstacle for the millions of people in the United States who are visually impaired or blind, because graphics are now ubiquitous and used in many instances as the sole information presentation method. Although presenting graphical information in terms of tactile diagrams is one alternative that has been proven useful, creating these diagrams remains a complex art that usually requires participation of a trained human. This is because to be effective tactile diagrams must be simplified; otherwise, they may be impossible to understand. Automating this process would have advantages in terms of cost, in terms of providing diagrams in a timely fashion (or even providing them at all), and in terms of independence for the intended users. In this project, which takes a first step toward this goal, the PI and her team will focus on the automatic conversion to tactile diagrams of two kinds of graphics: photographs and line drawings. To this end, a multi-step process is envisaged. First, techniques to segment images without a lot of fragmentation will be examined, modified and/or developed based on the current computer vision literature. Next, techniques will be developed for automating the simplification process, based on the manual steps as outlined by the Braille Authority of North America. Two main aspects will be considered: simplifying lines/curves in the diagram, and reducing clutter (defined as a situation where components of the graphic are too close together or so similar that they are hard to distinguish tactually). Then, automatic, metric rectification techniques will be explored, modified and/or developed to remove perspective from an image and replace it with a standard canonical view (because removing perspective seems to improve the user's ability to understand a tactile diagram). Finally, user studies will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the tactile graphics created by the new automatic methods in comparison to those created manually by expert tactile diagram makers.Broader Impacts: The ultimate goal of this line of research is to provide people who are blind or visually impaired with immediate and automatic access to any desired information, and thereby to remove the current barriers due to the graphical nature of computers and visual digital media. Project outcomes will be useful not only to adult members of the target communities; they will also make it possible to provide access to children's picture books to promote development in blind and visually impaired youngsters. The project will train at least one graduate and several undergraduate students in understanding the needs of the target communities and developing assistive technology for them. Results will be disseminated through the usual scientific channels and also in presentations to relevant stakeholders including individuals who are visually impaired, their teachers and other rehabilitation professionals. Results from this work will also be presented in workshops to K-12 students at the Math, Science, Innovation Center of Richmond to foster interest in STEM fields.

不幸的是，对于盲人和视力受损者来说，虽然计算机极大地改善了文本的获取，但计算机也极大地方便了制作、存储、传输和使用图形表示来传达信息。 这对美国数百万视力受损或失明的人造成了严重的障碍，因为图形现在无处不在，在许多情况下被用作唯一的信息呈现方法。 虽然以触觉图的形式呈现图形信息是一种已被证明有用的替代方案，但创建这些图仍然是一种复杂的艺术，通常需要受过训练的人的参与。 这是因为要有效的触觉图必须简化;否则，它们可能无法理解。 自动化这一过程在成本、及时提供图表（甚至完全提供图表）以及对预期用户的独立性方面具有优势。 在这个项目中，PI和她的团队将专注于两种图形的自动转换为触觉图：照片和线条图。 为此，设想了一个多步骤进程。 首先，将基于当前的计算机视觉文献来检查、修改和/或开发在没有大量碎片的情况下分割图像的技术。 接下来，将根据北美盲文管理局概述的手工步骤，开发简化过程自动化的技术。 将考虑两个主要方面：简化图中的直线/曲线，以及减少混乱（定义为图形的组件过于接近或过于相似以至于难以区分的情况）。 然后，将探索、修改和/或开发自动度量校正技术，以从图像中删除透视图，并用标准的规范视图替换它（因为删除透视图似乎可以提高用户理解触觉图的能力）。 最后，将进行用户研究，以评估新的自动方法制作的触觉图形与触觉图形制作专家手工制作的触觉图形相比的有效性。这项研究的最终目标是为盲人或视力受损的人提供即时和自动访问任何所需的信息，从而消除由于计算机和可视数字媒体的图形特性而造成的当前障碍。 项目成果不仅对目标社区的成年成员有用;它们还将使提供儿童图画书成为可能，以促进盲人和视障青少年的发展。 该项目将培训至少一名研究生和几名本科生了解目标社区的需要，并为他们开发辅助技术。 研究结果将通过通常的科学渠道传播，并向相关利益攸关方，包括视障人士、他们的教师和其他康复专业人员介绍。 这项工作的成果也将在里士满数学、科学、创新中心的K-12学生研讨会上展示，以培养他们对STEM领域的兴趣。