SBIR Phase II: A Dynamic Tactile Display for Visually Impaired Computer Users

该小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将创建具有真实产品的外观、感觉和功能的动态触觉显示器(DTD)原型，并将证明DTD使学习和使用计算机比现有的屏幕阅读器技术更容易。一项家庭试验研究将允许一组用户在家中使用DTD一段较长的时间，以确定他们是否喜欢随着时间的推移继续使用它。第二阶段的技术开发将产生一种强大的界面工具，将计算机显示信息转换为直观、触觉的格式，并允许盲人和视障用户更容易获得计算机工具。现代计算机软件和网页都是高度视觉导向的。然而，有数百万失明或严重视力受损的人，他们的视力残疾使他们无法看到标准的计算机屏幕。用户对现有的计算机接入解决方案的挫败感很高，目前使用计算机的视力障碍者的数量非常低--远远低于普通人群的比率。如此低的计算机使用率表明，迫切需要更好的计算机访问技术来满足这一残疾人群的需求。DTD主要是作为一种新的、更有效的界面来开发的，供视障用户使用基于Windows的软件和体验互联网。随着计算机在日常职业、教育和社交生活中变得越来越普遍，提供这样的工具变得越来越重要。因此，DTD将作为一种手段，通过允许盲人和视障人士更多地接触电脑，使他们更容易融入社会主流，使他们能够更接近于有视力的人所享有的机会。DTD提供了一种新的人机界面模式，提供了一个环境，在其中可以更多地了解触觉界面的设计和使用。它可以用作通过触摸来优化人/机器或人/人交互的触觉显示范例的有用平台。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will create a Dynamic Tactile Display (DTD) prototype with the look, feel, and functionality of the real-world product, and it will demonstrate that the DTD makes it easier to learn and use computers than existing screen reader technology. An in-home trial study will allow a group of users to have the DTD over an extended period of time in their homes, to establish whether or not they continue to like to use it over time. Technical development during Phase II will produce a powerful interface tool that translates computer display information into an intuitive, tactile format, and allows much greater accessibility of computer tools to the blind and visually impaired user. Modern computer software and web pages are highly visually oriented. However, there are millions of blind or severely visually impaired individuals whose visual disability prevents them from seeing the standard computer screen. User frustration with existing computer access solutions is high, and the number of visually disabled people currently using computers is very low--much lower than the rate in the general population. This low rate of computer use indicates a serious need for better computer access technology for this disabled population.The DTD is primarily being developed as a new, more effective interface for visually impaired users to use windows-based software and experience the Internet. Providing such a tool is increasingly important as computers become more pervasive in everyday professional, educational, and social life. The DTD will thus serve as a means to improve the inclusion of the blind and visually impaired in the mainstream of society by allow these users greater access to computers, access which is closer to that enjoyed by the sighted population. Providing a new human/computer interface modality, the DTD proffers an environment in which to understand more about the design and use of tactile interfaces. It may serve as a useful platform for optimization of the tactile display paradigm for human/machine or human/human interactions through touch.