HCC: Small: Automatic Simplification Methods for Tactile Graphics

不幸的是，对于盲人和视障人士来说，尽管计算机极大地改善了对文本的访问，但计算机也极大地方便了生产、存储、传输和使用图形表示来传达信息。这给美国数以百万计的视障或盲人造成了严重的障碍，因为图形现在无处不在，在许多情况下被用作唯一的信息呈现方式。虽然用触觉图表呈现图形信息是一种已被证明有用的替代方案，但创建这些图表仍然是一项复杂的艺术，通常需要训练有素的人参与。这是因为有效的触觉图表必须简化；否则，他们可能是不可能理解的。自动化这一过程在成本、及时提供图表(甚至根本不提供图表)以及目标用户的独立性方面都有优势。在这个项目中，这是迈向这一目标的第一步，PI和她的团队将专注于将两种图形：照片和线条画自动转换为触觉图表。为此，设想了一个多步骤的进程。首先，将基于当前的计算机视觉文献来检查、修改和/或开发不需要大量碎片地分割图像的技术。下一步，将根据北美盲文管理局概述的手动步骤，开发自动化简化过程的技术。将考虑两个主要方面：简化图表中的直线/曲线，以及减少杂乱(定义为图形的组成部分太接近或太相似，以至于它们实际上很难区分)。然后，将探索、修改和/或开发自动度量校正技术，以从图像中移除透视图，并用标准规范视图取而代之(因为移除透视图似乎提高了用户理解触觉图的能力)。最后，将进行用户研究，以评估由新的自动方法创建的触觉图形与由专家触觉图表制作者手动创建的触觉图形的有效性。布罗德影响：这一研究的最终目标是为盲人或视障人士提供即时和自动地获取任何所需信息，从而消除由于计算机和可视数字媒体的图形性质而造成的现有障碍。项目成果将不仅有益于目标社区的成年成员，还将使人们有可能获得儿童图画书，以促进盲人和视障青少年的发展。该项目将培训至少一名毕业生和几名本科生，让他们了解目标社区的需求，并为他们开发辅助技术。结果将通过通常的科学渠道传播，也将通过向相关利益攸关方，包括视障人士、他们的老师和其他康复专业人员的演示中传播。这项工作的成果还将在里士满数学、科学和创新中心的研讨会上向K-12年级的学生展示，以培养对STEM领域的兴趣。

Unfortunately for individuals who are blind and visually impaired, although access to text has greatly improved with computers, the computer has also greatly facilitated the ease of producing, storing, transmitting and using graphical representations to convey information. This has created a serious obstacle for the millions of people in the United States who are visually impaired or blind, because graphics are now ubiquitous and used in many instances as the sole information presentation method. Although presenting graphical information in terms of tactile diagrams is one alternative that has been proven useful, creating these diagrams remains a complex art that usually requires participation of a trained human. This is because to be effective tactile diagrams must be simplified; otherwise, they may be impossible to understand. Automating this process would have advantages in terms of cost, in terms of providing diagrams in a timely fashion (or even providing them at all), and in terms of independence for the intended users. In this project, which takes a first step toward this goal, the PI and her team will focus on the automatic conversion to tactile diagrams of two kinds of graphics: photographs and line drawings. To this end, a multi-step process is envisaged. First, techniques to segment images without a lot of fragmentation will be examined, modified and/or developed based on the current computer vision literature. Next, techniques will be developed for automating the simplification process, based on the manual steps as outlined by the Braille Authority of North America. Two main aspects will be considered: simplifying lines/curves in the diagram, and reducing clutter (defined as a situation where components of the graphic are too close together or so similar that they are hard to distinguish tactually). Then, automatic, metric rectification techniques will be explored, modified and/or developed to remove perspective from an image and replace it with a standard canonical view (because removing perspective seems to improve the user's ability to understand a tactile diagram). Finally, user studies will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the tactile graphics created by the new automatic methods in comparison to those created manually by expert tactile diagram makers.Broader Impacts: The ultimate goal of this line of research is to provide people who are blind or visually impaired with immediate and automatic access to any desired information, and thereby to remove the current barriers due to the graphical nature of computers and visual digital media. Project outcomes will be useful not only to adult members of the target communities; they will also make it possible to provide access to children's picture books to promote development in blind and visually impaired youngsters. The project will train at least one graduate and several undergraduate students in understanding the needs of the target communities and developing assistive technology for them. Results will be disseminated through the usual scientific channels and also in presentations to relevant stakeholders including individuals who are visually impaired, their teachers and other rehabilitation professionals. Results from this work will also be presented in workshops to K-12 students at the Math, Science, Innovation Center of Richmond to foster interest in STEM fields.