Desktop Co-robotic Assistant for Graphics and Text Access and Creation for Individuals who are Blind or Visually Impaired

用于盲人或视障人士的图形和文本访问和创建的桌面协作机器人助手

• 批准号: 1605226
• 负责人: Dianne Pawluk
• 金额: $ 30.3万
• 依托单位: Virginia Commonwealth University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-02-01 至 2022-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1605226&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Desktop; Co; robotic; Assistant; Graphics

1605226 - PawlukIn the U.S. alone, there are approximately 8 million individuals who are blind or visually impaired. In order for these individuals to reach their potential and be competitive with their peers, it is important that they have equivalent access to information to ensure timely completion of education and work tasks. Computers have become essential in these environments, creating information and collaborating with others, whether in the same room or remotely over the web. A lot of this interaction is highly spatial in nature, whether in the use and creation of graphics, interacting with others through a mouse or cursor, or searching for information in the spatial layout of text on a web page. For individuals who are blind or visually impaired, this spatial information is largely inaccessible. This project is intended to address this issue by developing a robotic assistant to provide haptic and Braille input and output to a computer, as well as aid an individual in exploration of the computer window.The main goal of this grant is to provide a coherent haptic system that provides effective input and output of graphics and Braille on a full haptic page/window through a single device that can be used in a single hand posture. The objectives are to first develop a desktop co-robot to provide shared control with the user over a haptic interface to aid in exploring graphical and full page Braille information. A mouse-shaped tactile input/output component will be mounted on the co-robot to provide spatially distributed tactile feedback to the second and third fingers of the hand. Combined with a stationary version of the mouse, this will also allow simultaneous input of Braille text through button inputs and, in the future, the creation of graphical information. In developing this system, we will use a Participatory Action Design approach involving all stakeholders. The created system will then be validated in accessing graphical and full page text information, as well as editing full page text compared to current commercial and/or research devices. In addition, this system will be furthered by the development of techniques to effectively communicate the focus of attention between the user and collaborators.

1605226-Pawluk仅在美国，就有大约800万盲人或视障人士。为了让这些人发挥他们的潜力并与他们的同龄人竞争，重要的是他们有平等的机会获得信息，以确保及时完成教育和工作任务。在这些环境中，计算机变得必不可少，无论是在同一个房间里，还是通过网络远程创建信息和与他人合作。无论是在使用和创建图形、通过鼠标或光标与他人交互，还是在网页文本的空间布局中搜索信息，这种交互本质上都是高度空间性的。对于失明或视力受损的人来说，这些空间信息在很大程度上是无法访问的。这个项目旨在解决这个问题，开发一种机器人助手，为计算机提供触觉和盲文输入和输出，并帮助个人探索计算机窗口。该赠款的主要目标是提供一个连贯的触觉系统，通过一个可以在单手姿势下使用的单一设备，在整个触觉页面/窗口上提供有效的图形和盲文输入和输出。其目标是首先开发一种桌面协作机器人，通过触觉界面与用户共享控制，以帮助探索图形和整页盲文信息。一个鼠标形状的触觉输入/输出组件将安装在协作机器人上，以向手的第二和第三个手指提供空间分布的触觉反馈。与固定版本的鼠标相结合，这还将允许通过按钮输入同时输入盲文文本，并在未来创建图形信息。在开发这一系统时，我们将使用参与式行动设计方法，让所有利益攸关方参与进来。与目前的商业和/或研究设备相比，创建的系统将在访问图形和整页文本信息以及编辑整页文本方面进行验证。此外，这一系统将通过开发技术来进一步发展，以便在用户和合作者之间有效地传达关注的焦点。