CHS: Small: RUI: Creation of Assistive Technology for the Blind Through Largescale Co-Design

CHS：小：RUI：通过大规模协同设计为盲人创造辅助技术

• 批准号: 2007824
• 负责人: Paul Ruvolo
• 金额: $ 34.38万
• 依托单位: Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2007824&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CHS; Small; RUI; Creation; Assistive

People who are blind face significant challenges, including a heightened risk of depression and a rate of participation in the labor force less than half that of the general population. Among other factors, difficulties with orientation and mobility (O&M) play a key role in the challenges faced by members of this community. Engineers have long tried to use technology to assist with O&M, but despite many attempts the impact of these efforts has been modest. This mixed track record is due to both shortcomings in technology (e.g., expensive yet unreliable hardware) as well as in methodology (e.g., not useful to a broad sample of users). While each of these shortcomings could be addressed in isolation, they can be most effectively addressed together. To this end, this project will create an infrastructure to enable two novel capabilities: designing O&M technology with people all around the world; and creating O&M technology with state-of-the-art flexibility and accuracy. These capabilities will be based on smartphones, which have recently been updated with 3D-sensing algorithms to support augmented reality; while these features were primarily designed to support experiences for sighted people, they have the potential to be repurposed as a robust platform for O&M technology. Project outcomes will provide enhanced support for independence and job-readiness for the eight million Americans who are blind. Additional broad impacts will derive from educational and outreach activities, including a summer research experience for 18 undergraduates at least 3 of whom will be blind, and a course on assistive technology and user-centered design where undergraduates will work directly with people in the community to improve accessibility.To achieve its objectives, the project will create a data-driven design process to allow a large, distributed team to work together to build O&M technology, ultimately recruiting dozens of co-designers (both blind and sighted) towards the goal of creating systems that are state-of-the-art in their robustness and usability. To recruit a large team of co-designers, the project will leverage the user base of the Clew smartphone app for O&M, which is used by 1,000 unique users per month. Smartphone-based features for O&M assistive technology will be evaluated, providing narrative feedback coupled with rich data streams utilizing a smartphone's sensors. The collected sensor data will be processed using novel machine learning and crowdsourcing algorithms to extract information (e.g., the user's location and the location of nearby objects), creating a first-of-its-kind dataset. The project will train machine learning algorithms on this dataset to create layers of functionality on top of the AR features of smartphones, to enable advanced capabilities such as the diagnosis and repair of motion-tracking errors. The project team will collaborate with people who are blind to incorporate these new capabilities into Clew, advancing the state-of-the-art in indoor navigation and exploration technology.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.

盲人面临重大挑战的人，包括抑郁症的风险增加和劳动力的参与率不到一半的一半。 除其他因素外，方向和流动性（O＆M）的困难在该社区成员面临的挑战中起着关键作用。 工程师长期以来一直试图使用技术来协助O＆M，但是尽管有许多尝试，这些努力的影响仍然很小。 这种混合的记录是由于技术的缺点（例如，昂贵但不可靠的硬件）以及方法论（例如，对广泛的用户样本无用）。 尽管这些缺点中的每一个都可以孤立地解决，但可以最有效地解决它们。 为此，该项目将创建一个基础设施，以实现两种新颖的功能：与世界各地的人们一起设计O＆M技术；并以最先进的灵活性和准确性来创建O＆M技术。 这些功能将基于智能手机，该智能手机最近已使用3D-Sensing算法进行更新，以支持增强现实；尽管这些功能主要是为了支持视力人士的体验，但它们有可能被重新用于O＆M技术的强大平台。 项目成果将为盲人的800万美国人提供对独立性和就业准备的增强支持。 Additional broad impacts will derive from educational and outreach activities, including a summer research experience for 18 undergraduates at least 3 of whom will be blind, and a course on assistive technology and user-centered design where undergraduates will work directly with people in the community to improve accessibility.To achieve its objectives, the project will create a data-driven design process to allow a large, distributed team to work together to build O&M technology, ultimately recruiting dozens of co-designers （盲人和视力）朝着创建在其鲁棒性和可用性上最先进的系统的目标。 为了招募大型共同设计师团队，该项目将利用O＆M的CLEW智能手机应用程序的用户群，该应用程序每月1,000个唯一用户使用。 将评估基于智能手机的O＆M辅助技术功能，从而提供叙事反馈以及利用智能手机传感器的丰富数据流。 收集到的传感器数据将使用新颖的机器学习和众包算法来处理信息（例如，用户的位置和附近对象的位置），创建一个首先的数据集。 该项目将在此数据集上训练机器学习算法，以在智能手机的AR功能之上创建功能层，以实现高级功能，例如诊断和修复运动跟踪错误。 该项目团队将与盲目的人合作，将这些新能力纳入CLEW，推进室内导航和勘探技术的最先进。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准通过评估来进行评估的。

项目成果

Clew3D: Automated Generation of O&M Instructions Using LIDAR-Equipped Smartphones

Clew3D：自动生成 O

• DOI: 10.1145/3441852.3476564
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: ASSETS '21: The 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility
• 作者: Harriman, Hwei-Shin;Ahmetovic, Dragan;Mascetti, Sergio;Moyle, Darren;Evans, Michael;Ruvolo, Paul
• 通讯作者: Ruvolo, Paul

Considering Spatial Cognition of Blind Travelers in Utilizing Augmented Reality for Navigation

利用增强现实进行导航时考虑盲人旅行者的空间认知

• DOI: 10.1109/percomworkshops51409.2021.9430997
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: 2021 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops and other Affiliated Events (PerCom Workshops
• 作者: Ruvolo, Paul

The Cane Game: An Educational Tool for Orientation and Mobility

手杖游戏：方向感和灵活性的教育工具

• DOI: 10.1145/3544549.3573859
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
• 作者: Ruvolo, Paul;Louie, Ryan;Jerman, Eric
• 通讯作者: Jerman, Eric