CHS: Small: Rethinking Haptic-Based Remote Communication Leveraging the DeafBlind Community's Tactile Intuitions

有视觉和听觉两种感觉丧失的人如何沟通？他们必须依靠另一种感官——触觉。相比之下，当前的环境充斥着向视觉和听觉渠道倾斜的通信技术。人们通过手机通话，通过视频会议聊天，或者通过各种短信应用程序发送信息。即使彼此不在一起，个人也可以通过各种方式联系。尽管新技术取得了进步，但在远程通信工具中，丰富的触摸反馈很大程度上是缺失的。大多数情况下，触摸反馈被用作一种提示机制，比如通过振动提醒用户信息到达，但传达的内容很少。触觉反馈的缺失使许多新技术无法捕捉到社交和情感层面的体验，使那些依赖触觉作为主要交流手段的人无法使用新技术。这个项目通过利用盲人群体的触觉直觉来重新思考基于触摸的远程交流。从这个创新的社区，一种新的语言正在出现，使人类能够通过触摸彼此交流。该项目与DB社区合作，旨在了解直观的、基于触摸的通信信号的核心功能。研究结果将为新的可穿戴设备的设计提供信息，这些设备试图复制这些基于触摸的配置文件，为所有人提供更丰富的远程通信体验。该项目的研究目标是：(a)了解本地和远程交互的核心组件如何通过触觉感官通道重新路由，以及(b)通过扩展和加强用户的触觉能力来支持这种重新路由的设计技术。为了实现这些目标，将交流的人类学方法与工程学相结合，推动可穿戴触觉设备的设计，通过触觉反馈实现交流的核心功能。利用快速人种学与触觉系统设计相结合，这项工作将为基于触觉的通信方案建立指导方针，同时创建一个平台，使DB个体之间的独立远程通信能够发展，并为所有个体提供更丰富的通信体验。这个项目将增加人们对触觉通道作为主要交流方式的普遍理解。它还将促进对人类以多种方式进行交流的能力的理解，在所有感官都可用的情况下促进最佳信息传递，并在存在感官差异的情况下促进更高的信息获取标准。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

How would persons with 2 sensory losses - vision and hearing - communicate? They have to rely on another sense for that - touch. In contrast, the current environment is saturated with communication technologies that are skewed toward the visual and auditory channels. Individuals talk on mobile phones, chat via video conferencing, or message through various texting applications. Without being physically present with one another, individuals can connect in a variety of ways. Despite advances in new technologies, rich touch feedback is largely missing in remote communication tools. Most often, touch feedback is used as a cueing mechanism such as through vibrations that alert the user about the arrival of a message but convey little of its content. The omission of touch feedback prevents many new technologies from capturing the social and emotional dimensions of the experience and leaves new technologies inaccessible to those who rely on touch as a primary means of communication. This project rethinks touch-based, remote communication by leveraging the tactile intuitions of the protactile DeafBlind (DB) community. From this innovative community, a new language is emerging that enables humans to communicate with one another solely through touch. This project, in partnership with the DB community, aims to understand the core functions of intuitive, touch-based communication signals. Findings will inform the design of new wearable devices that attempt to replicate these touch-based profiles for richer remote communication experiences for all individuals. The research goals of this project are to (a) understand how core components of local and remote interaction can be re-routed through the tactile sensory channel and (b) design technology which will support such re-routings by expanding and reinforcing the tactile capacities of its users. To accomplish these aims, anthropological approaches to communication are synthesized with engineering to drive the design of a wearable haptic device that enables core functions of communication via tactile feedback. Using rapid ethnography coupled with haptic systems design, this work will establish guidelines for tactile-based communication schemes while creating a platform from which independent remote communication among DB individuals can evolve and richer communication experiences for all individuals are possible. This project will increase the general understanding of the tactile channel as a primary mode of communication. It will also advance understanding of human abilities to communicate in multimodal ways, promoting optimal information transfer when all senses are available and promoting higher standards for access of information when sensory differences exist.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.