Maps as a service: A systematic approach to the production of tactile and audio/vibrational maps for visually impaired users

地图即服务：为视障用户制作触觉和音频/振动地图的系统方法

• 批准号: 10720207
• 负责人: NICHOLAS A GIUDICE
• 金额: $ 36.78万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10720207
• 关键词: 3-Dimensional; Acoustics; Address; Area; Awareness; Cellular Phone; Cognition; Cognitive; Collaborations; Communities; Computer software; Confusion; Dangerousness; Data; Data Set; Destinations; Diffusion; Educational process of instructing; Engineering; Environment; Evaluation; Floor; Generations; Geographic Information Systems; Home; Image; Indoor environment; Information Sciences; Institution; Knowledge; Learning; Location; Maine; Maps; Modernization; Navigation System; Persons; Production; Published Comment; Reporting; Research; Research Activity; Route; San Francisco; Schools; Semantics; Series; Services; Specific qualifier value; Structure; Study Subject; System; Tactile; Techniques; Technology; Training; Twin Studies; Vision; Visual impairment; Visually Impaired Persons; Work; blind; computer science; design; effectiveness evaluation; experimental study; human subject; interest; multimodality; new technology; open source; research and development; skills; smartphone application; stem; technological innovation; tool; usability; vector; visual map; web app

Project Summary Mobility, orientation, and spatial awareness can be challenging for people who are blind. Navigating new or unfamiliar environments without sight can be confusing and stressful, and potentially dangerous. As a consequence, it has been reported that at least 30% of blind individuals do not make independent trips outside of their home. For sighted and blind travelers alike, maps represent a valuable tool for spatial cognition. Maps can be made accessible to blind users using tactile format, or as multimodal vibrational/audio maps (a format pioneered by co-I Giudice, himself a blind individual). Research has shown that, when given the opportunity to explore an accessible map beforehand (pre-journey learning), blind travelers may achieve better spatial awareness of locations, which may help with maintaining orientation and determining new routes. Tactile maps are traditionally created by professionals, often following “tricks of the trade” and using non-standardized symbols. Recently, there has been a push towards systematic approaches to tactile map creation that would enable wider diffusion and consistent spatial symbols rendering. Online services (e.g., TMAPS) have been created, that allow anyone to specify a certain region to be mapped, and have a tactile map automatically generated for that region, sourcing from an open access geographical information system. Existing systems for on-demand map creation, however, can only map outdoor areas. There is no such service for building indoors, and in fact, very little research work has addressed the systematic production of tactile indoor maps. Indoor environments are generally less structured than typical urban layouts. Moving about in a building may require spatial knowledge at multiple scales (from the general building structure to the internal layout of a room). And, unlike widely available GIS data sets, obtaining detailed floor plans in a format amenable for tactile map creation can be challenging. In this application, we propose research and development focusing on a system for the semi-automatic creation of accessible maps (in tactile and vibrational/audio format) of indoor environments. This work will stem from a prior web application (SIM, developed by PI Manduchi’s team) that allows anyone to trace an existing floor plan to generate an embossable map. Our research activities will be organized around the following Specific Aims: Facilitating acquisition and “vectorization” of floor plans (Aim 1); Automatic conversion of a vectorized map (expressed in terms of spatial primitives) to an accessible map at any desired scale, by means of cartographic generalization operators and carefully designed symbol sets (Aim 2); User studies with blind subjects, designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the maps produced by our new SIM system (Aim 3); Transferring the new SIM web app technology to our partner institution, the Vista Center for the Blind of Palo Alto, which will make it available as a service to interested stakeholders.

项目摘要 对于盲人来说，机动性、方向性和空间意识可能是具有挑战性的。导航新的或不熟悉的 没有视力的环境可能会令人困惑，充满压力，并具有潜在的危险。因此，它一直是 报道称，至少有30%的盲人不会走出家门独自旅行。 对于有视力和失明的旅行者来说，地图是一种宝贵的空间认知工具。地图是可以制作的 盲人用户可以使用触觉格式，或作为多模式振动/音频地图(一种由co-i首创的格式 朱迪斯，他自己就是一个盲人)。研究表明，当有机会探索一种可接近的 事先(旅行前学习)地图，盲人旅行者可能会获得更好的位置空间意识，这可能 帮助保持方向并确定新的路线。 传统上，触觉地图是由专业人员创建的，通常遵循“行业诀窍”，并使用非标准化的 符号。最近，已经有了一种系统的方法来创建触觉地图，这将使 更广泛的扩散和一致的空间符号渲染。已经创建了在线服务(例如，TMAPS)，允许 任何人指定要映射的某个区域，并为该区域自动生成触觉映射， 来自开放获取的地理信息系统。 然而，现有的按需地图创建系统只能绘制室外区域的地图。没有这样的服务 建筑在室内，事实上，很少有研究工作涉及到系统地制作触觉室内地图。 与典型的城市布局相比，室内环境通常没有那么结构化。在建筑物内走动可能需要 多尺度的空间知识(从一般建筑结构到房间内部布局)。而且，不同于 广泛可用的GIS数据集，以适合创建触觉地图的格式获取详细的平面图，可以 很有挑战性。 在这一应用中，我们提出了一种专注于半自动生成系统的研究和开发 室内环境的无障碍地图(触觉和振动/音频格式)。这项工作将源于以前的网络 应用程序(由Pi Manduchi的团队开发的SIM)，允许任何人跟踪现有的平面图以生成 可浮雕地图。我们的研究活动将围绕以下具体目标组织：促进收购 和平面图的“矢量化”(目标1)；矢量化地图的自动转换(以空间表示 原语)到任何所需比例的可访问地图，通过制图综合运算符 设计符号集(目标2)；盲人受试者的用户研究，旨在评估地图的有效性 由我们的新SIM系统(AIM 3)生产；将新的SIM网络应用程序技术转让给我们的合作机构， 帕洛阿尔托Vista盲人中心，这将使其作为一项服务提供给感兴趣的利益攸关方。