Transcending The Digital Divide

提案# HRD-00- 99261机构：加州大学圣巴巴拉分校首席研究员：雷金纳德Golledge标题：“超越数字鸿沟“摘要本研究的目的是开发，评估和传播一个非视觉接口访问数字信息。 其目的是调查的知觉和认知问题，盲人面临的时候，试图解释提供的信息在一个多模态的方式。 该项目还计划提供触摸敏感和基于声音的网络接口和导航设备，包括认知寻路算法。 触觉（力反馈）界面将被提供用于浏览由地图、图形、图标或图像产品组成的网页。 还将提供用于屏幕窗口、地图和图像信息的声音标识符。 这些任务将有助于跨越数字鸿沟，数字鸿沟使盲人或视力受损者越来越远离日益增长的以信息为基础的工作场所。 UCSB最近的研究已经开始探索个人如何识别通过声音和触摸呈现的特征。 其他研究（例如O 'Modhrrain和吉莱斯皮，1998;麦金利和Scott，1998）已经使用触觉来探索屏幕对象，如窗口，下拉菜单，按钮和滑块;但地图，图形和其他地图表示尚未探索。 特别是，潜在的听觉地图的屏幕上的现象（例如，这将是重要的GIS应用）几乎没有被检查，并结合音频和触摸的原则，以建立一个接口的例子存在。 虽然创造性的努力，建立非视觉界面一直在进行。 然而，很少有经验证据表明，没有视力的人可以有效地使用它们（即发展出对所经历的现象的真实再现）。 实验将测试不同年龄组别的视障人士使用这些新界面或功能的能力，这些新界面或功能包括：（i）触觉鼠标或与听觉通讯显示器相连的触摸窗;（ii）数字化的真实的声音，以显示其映射位置的环境特征;（iii）地图、图像或图表的“声音绘画”，以显示温度、降水、压力、人口密度和海拔等现象的梯度。 将开发测试以评估（i）场景的触觉解释的最小可分辨区域;（ii）在声音或力反馈触觉领域中形状跟踪的技能的开发;（iii）使用与触摸敏感板相关联的连续或离散声音符号来学习分层嵌套屏幕信息的可能性（例如，国家内州内地区内城市的位置）;（iv）评估如何在触觉或听觉领域中进行诸如滚动、缩放和搜索的动态活动，（v）评估人们的理解和探索、理解，并对复杂视觉显示（例如地图和图表）的各种非视觉解释进行推断，以及（vi）探索使用具有2”正方形运动域的触觉鼠标来搜索14”屏幕的有效性（即比例效应）。

Proposal # HRD-00-99261Institution: UC Santa BarbaraPrincipal Investigator: Reginald GolledgeTitle: "Transcending the Digital Divide"ABSTRACTThe purpose of this research is to develop, evaluate, and disseminate a non-visual interface for accessing digital information. The aim is to investigate the perceptual and cognitive problems that blind people face when trying to interpret information provided in a multimodal manner. The project also plans to provide touch sensitive and sound based network interface and navigation devices that incorporate cognitive wayfinding heuristics. Haptic (force feedback) interfaces will be provided for exploring web pages that consist of map, graphic, iconic or image products. Sound identifiers for on-screen windowed, map, and image information will also be provided. These tasks will contribute to transcending the Digital Divide that increasingly separates blind or vision impaired people from the growing information-based workplace. Recent research at UCSB has begun to explore how individuals identify features presented through sound and touch. Other research (e.g. O'Modhrrain and Gillespie, 1998; McKinley and Scott, 1998) have used haptics to explore screen objects such as windows, pulldown menus, buttons, and sliders; but map, graphic and other cartographic representations have not been explored. In particular, the potential of auditory maps of on-screen phenomena (e.g. as would be important in GIS applications) has barely been examined and few examples exist of combining audio and touch principles to build an interface. While imaginative efforts to build non-visual interfaces have been proceeding. there is a yet little empirical evidence that people without sight can use them effectively (i.e. develop a true representation of the experienced phenomena). Experiments will be undertaken to test the ability of vision impaired and sighted people from different age groups to use these new interface or features such as: (i) the haptic mouse or a touch window tied to auditory communication displays; (ii) digitized real sounds to indicate environmental features at their mapped locations; (iii) "sound painting" of maps, images, or charts to indicate gradients of phenomena like temperature, precipitation, pressure, population density and altitude. Tests will be developed to evaluate (i) the minimum resolvable area for the haptic interpretation of scenes; (ii) the development of skills for shape tracing in the sound or the force-feedback haptic domain, (iii) the possibility of using continuous or discreet sound symbols associated with touch sensitive pads to learn hierarchically nested screen information (e.g. locations of cities within regions within states within nations); (iv) to evaluate how dynamic activities such as scrolling, zooming, and searching can be conducted in the haptic or auditory domain, (v) to evaluate people's comprehension and ability to explore, comprehend, and make inferences about various non-visual interpretations of complex visual displays (e.g. maps and diagrams), and (vi) to explore the effectiveness of using a haptic mouse with a 2" square motion domain to search a 14" screen (i.e. scale effects).