CAREER: Rendering Algorithms for Tactile and Haptic Display of Multidimensional Data

该职业规划侧重于设计国家信息基础设施（NII）的每个公民接口（ECIs）以及将残疾人充分融入教育和就业主流的广泛挑战。这些都是互补的挑战，因为全面访问国家信息研究所不仅成为教育和就业的一部分，而且成为休闲活动的一部分。对于身体、感官和其他残疾的人来说，访问是一个特别值得关注的问题，他们经常发现当前的界面很难或无法使用。这个职业规划包括一套紧密协调的研究、教育和指导活动，旨在解决NII接口和残疾人的教育需求。在广泛的目标中，该计划的具体研究活动侧重于渲染算法的开发，这些算法将允许视觉障碍患者通过触觉和触觉手段访问多维数据。多维信息，如复杂的数学表达式或记录的传感器数据，通常以难以接近的视觉形式显示。虽然触觉和触觉硬件技术不断进步，可以承担这个问题，相对较少的研究已经应用到渲染算法的发展，以有效地显示信息。本研究将解决以下基本问题：低浮雕触觉和动态触觉显示的最佳数据分解-将开发提取数据特征的方法，包括忠实地表示底层数据的边缘，轮廓，区域边界和纹理。优化特征和多分辨率显示-将开发针对低触觉和动觉带宽进行优化的显示方法。这些方法将以一种可以触觉和触觉理解的形式呈现数据特征。此外，这些显示方法将允许多分辨率显示，其中细节级别可以很容易地控制。触觉和触觉渲染研究也将发展多模态方法，并借鉴更发达的声学和一般可视化领域，使这一研究领域正规化。研究目标与一套互补的教育和指导目标紧密结合，包括开发相关课程和为高中到研究生阶段代表性不足群体的学生实施指导活动。具体的教育和指导目标包括：课程开发-课程开发将为学生提供对ECI设计至关重要的领域的理论基础，并将向他们介绍一系列广泛的问题，包括与残疾有关的问题。学生还将与社区组织合作，解决现实世界中的问题，并在基于问题的环境中学习。辅导活动——辅导活动包括一个基于互联网的辅导计划，为有残疾的高中生提供暑期实习和研究机会，以及为一个以校园残疾问题为重点的学生组织提供建议。教育和指导活动将与研究活动结合进行，例如在课程中使用研究项目作为教学范例，并将实习生纳入研究小组。此外，研究成果将形成新的范例教学工具，可以整合到课程中。通过这些协调的努力，ECI设计的知识体系将得到发展，残疾人也将获得更多的机会。

This career plan focuses on the broad challenges of designing every-citizen interfaces (ECIs) to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and fully integrating individuals with disabilities into the education and employment mainstream. These are complementing challenges as full access to the NII is becoming integral to not only education and employment, but also leisure time pursuits. Access is of particular concern to individuals with physical, sensory, and other disabilities who often find current interfaces difficult or impossible to use. This career plan consists of a tightly coordinated set of research, education, and mentoring activities designed to address the NII interface and educational needs of individuals with disabilities.Within the broad objectives, the specific research activities of this plan focus on the development of rendering algorithms that will allow individuals with visual impairments access to multidimensional data through haptic and tactile means. Information that is multidimensional, such as complex mathematical expressions or recorded sensor data, is generally displayed in an inaccessible visual form. While tactile and haptic hardware technology continues to advance and can be brought to bear on this problem, relatively little research has been applied to the development of rendering algorithms for the effective display of information. This research will address the following fundamental issues: Optimal data decomposition for low-relief tactile and dynamic haptic display - Methods for extracting data features, including edges, contours, region boundaries, and textures that faithfully represent the underlying data will be developed. Optimal feature and multiresolution display - Display methods that are optimized for the low tactile and kinesthetic bandwidth will be developed. These methods will present data features in a form that can be comprehended tactilely and haptically. Moreover, these display methods will allow for a multiresolution display in which detail level can be easily controlled.The tactile and haptic rendering research will also develop multimodal methods and formalize this area of research borrowing from the more developed fields of sonification and general visualization.The research objectives are closely integrated with a complementing set of education and mentoring objectives, including the development of related courses and the implementation of mentoring activities for students from underrepresented groups in the high school through graduate school levels. The specific educational and mentoring objectives include: Course Development - Courses will be developed that give students a theoretical foundation in areas critical to ECI design and will also introduce them to a wide array of problems, including disability related issues. Students will also work with community organizations to solve real-world problems and learn in a problem-based setting. Mentoring activities - Mentoring activities include an Internet based mentoring program for high school students with disabilities, summer internships and research opportunities, and advisement of a campus disability issues focused student organization.The education and mentoring activities will be conducted in conjunction with the research activities, for instance through the use of research projects as teaching examples in courses and the inclusion of interns in research teams. Moreover, results from the research efforts will form new paradigm teaching tools that can be integrated into the curriculum. Through these coordinated efforts, the body of knowledge on ECI design will be advanced as will the opportunities available to individuals with disabilities.