CAREER: Adaptive Electro-Braille: A New Tactile Sensory Substitution and Assistive Technology for the Blind and Visually Impaired

职业：自适应电子盲文：一种针对盲人和视障人士的新型触觉替代和辅助技术

• 批准号: 1352006
• 负责人: Yantao Shen
• 金额: $ 41.88万
• 依托单位: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-05-01 至 2020-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1352006&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Adaptive; Electro; Braille; New

Proposal Number: 1352006P.I.: Yantao ShenInstitution: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada-RenoTitle: CAREER: Adaptive Electro-Braille: A New Tactile Sensory Substitution and Assistive Technology for the Blind and Visually ImpairedBroader Significance & Importance:Advanced assistive technologies are critical to the well-being of the blind and visually impaired (BVI). Touch sensitive displays that can be operated by a variety of users are needed to gain information by the BVI community. Currently technology is not equipped with features that permit the BVI anytime/anywhere access and are not adaptable and convenient for use. This research project will develop tools that are based on electronic scanning technology adapted to a finger-wearable touch device that can be used to scan a variety of objects including Braille text.Technical Description:In order to assist the Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) community to "see", assistive tactile displays that are adaptive, sensorized, individualized, and portable are required. Currently available tactile assistive displays are not equipped with features that permit the BVI to "see" conveniently. This long-term CAREER goal is to facilitate the advances in electrotactile sensing, rendering, and computation into the next generation of smart, individual perception-centered, and portable assistive display to aid the BVI as well to establish a user-friendly and networked infrastructure for enhancing healthcare, learning capabilities and education. In particular, the research objective of this CAREER proposal is to investigate an electrotactile based Braille display technology that is electronic scanning-style, adaptive tactile preference rendering, and finger-wearable. This technology is based on electrical stimulation, and has both online skin bioimpedance sensing and tactile preference rendering functions, called E-Braille. This technology will allow the BVI to conveniently perform important tasks, such as reading, typing in Braille, browsing the Internet, engaging in online conversations, and perceiving graphics. Further, combined with cyber-infrastructure network technology, E-Braille will allow the BVI to conveniently access more documents, books, and libraries, anytime and anywhere. An equally important goal is the recruitment and training of the next generation of engineers who will emerge not only with a solid background in engineering and science disciplines but also have the passion and ability to contribute their expertise in multidisciplinary assistive and rehabilitative engineering areas. The success of this CAREER project will facilitate research to aid the BVI and will advance our fundamental understanding of electrotactile mechanisms. The major research focus is the development of an adaptive, individual perception-centered, and electrotactile-based Braille display for the BVI, known as E-Braille, which is unique as a fingerwearable electronic device, and will conveniently provide the BVI unlimited access to the information world. The display also will be the first of its kind to include online identification of individual tactile preferences as well as the ability for adaptive tactile preference tuning/rendering for individuals. Currently available Braille displays do not have these features. This CAREER proposal aims to advance the state of the art in portable seeing- assistive devices for the BVI. It will accomplish this goal through the development of EBraille, an affordable and innovative electrical stimulation-based Braille tactile display. This system will offer fast, refreshable information exchange. The proposed adaptive E-Braille will dramatically improve the quality of life of the BVI by allowing them to live more independently and with greater ease. As an integrative part of this project, the PI will develop educational materials inspired by the research results, directed toward students in multidisciplinary engineering program. The research results also will inspire an outreach effort aimed at attracting K-12 students, women, under-represented minorities, and persons with disabilities (e.g., the BVI) to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines as well as to participate in this exciting and cutting-edge research project. Finally, both research and educational results will be disseminated by means of presentations at conferences, publications in peer-reviewed journals, web portals, magazines, newspapers, TV and other media, and to the community involved in BVI assistive technology and systems

提案编号：1352006P.I.：烟涛研究所：内华达大学董事会：职业：自适应电子盲文：盲人和视障人士的新型触觉替代和辅助技术研究意义和重要性：先进的辅助技术对盲人和视障人士的福祉至关重要。英属维尔京群岛社区需要可由各种用户操作的触敏显示器来获取信息。目前，技术还没有配备允许英属维尔京群岛随时随地访问的功能，并且使用起来不灵活和方便。这项研究项目将开发基于电子扫描技术的工具，适用于手指可穿戴式触摸设备，可用于扫描包括盲文文本在内的各种对象。技术说明：为了帮助盲人和视障人士(BVI)社区“看到”，需要自适应、感应化、个性化和便携的辅助触觉显示器。目前可用的触觉辅助显示器不具备允许英属维尔京群岛方便地“看”的功能。这一长期的职业目标是促进电触觉传感、渲染和计算领域的进步，进入下一代智能、以个人感知为中心的便携式辅助显示器，以帮助BVI建立用户友好和联网的基础设施，以增强医疗保健、学习能力和教育。特别是，这份职业建议书的研究目标是研究一种基于电子触觉的盲文显示技术，该技术具有电子扫描式、自适应触觉偏好渲染和手指可穿戴的特点。这项技术基于电刺激，同时具有在线皮肤生物阻抗传感和触觉偏好渲染功能，称为E-盲文。这项技术将使BVI能够方便地执行重要任务，如阅读、用盲文打字、浏览互联网、进行在线对话和识别图形。此外，与网络基础设施网络技术相结合，电子盲文将使英属维尔京群岛能够随时随地方便地访问更多的文档、书籍和图书馆。同样重要的目标是征聘和培训下一代工程师，他们不仅在工程和科学学科方面有扎实的背景，而且有激情和能力在多学科的辅助和康复工程领域贡献自己的专业知识。这一职业项目的成功将促进帮助英属维尔京群岛的研究，并将促进我们对电触觉机制的基本理解。主要的研究重点是为BVI开发一种自适应的、以个人感知为中心的、基于电触觉的盲文显示器，称为E-盲文，作为一种手指可穿戴的电子设备，它将方便地为BVI提供对信息世界的无限访问。该显示器还将是此类显示器中第一个包括在线识别个人触觉偏好以及为个人自适应触觉偏好调整/渲染的能力。目前可用的盲文显示器没有这些功能。这份职业建议书旨在提升英属维尔京群岛便携式助视设备的技术水平。它将通过开发E布莱叶盲文来实现这一目标，这是一种负担得起的创新的基于电刺激的盲文触觉显示器。该系统将提供快速、可刷新的信息交换。拟议的自适应电子盲文将极大地提高英属维尔京群岛人的生活质量，使他们能够更独立和更轻松地生活。作为这个项目的一个综合部分，PI将根据研究成果开发教育材料，面向多学科工程专业的学生。研究成果还将激发旨在吸引K-12学生、妇女、代表性不足的少数民族和残疾人(如英属维尔京群岛)学习科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学科以及参与这一令人兴奋的前沿研究项目的外展努力。最后，研究和教育成果将通过在会议上发表演讲、在同行评议的期刊、门户网站、杂志、报纸、电视和其他媒体上发表，以及向参与英属维尔京群岛辅助技术和系统的社区传播。