CAREER: Adaptive Tactile Picture Books for Blind Children during Emergent Literacy

本研究的动机是在儿童逐渐学会阅读的阶段，儿童早期的图画书经验在紧急识字过程中的重要性。 图画书将视觉素养、文化素养和印刷素养联系起来，这对儿童的读写能力发展至关重要。 但只有少数儿童书籍有盲童可以接触到的触觉图片，而且这些图片通常不能修改以适应儿童的特殊需要。 考虑到这一点，PI将研究3D打印作为一种技术机制，以物理方式实现针对特定儿童优化的自适应触觉图片的变化，并“制作”它的唯一副本，这是传统打印方法无法实现的，这些方法面向统一设计的大规模生产。 实现这一愿景将改变视障儿童获得触觉图画的方式;家长或教师将能够从网站上下载触觉图画书的数字3D模型，为儿童调整模型，3D打印模型，并与儿童一起阅读由此产生的“独一无二”的书。 研究成果将包括一个用于分享3D触觉图片的网站和创建这些图片的开源工具。在这个集科学、设计和工程于一体的项目中，PI将利用3D打印来克服传统的一刀切的触觉图片缺乏适应性的问题。 具体目标1将建立一个新的实验框架，基于对家庭的大规模传播和基于视频的儿童行为观察，以科学地研究3D打印的触觉图片。 具体目标2将揭示的原则，以引起从视障儿童的偏好和能力，以及必要的自适应转换，以优化设计的触觉图片专门为该儿童。 具体目标3将引入技术创新，以优化触觉图片的3D打印，简化3D建模软件，使更多的人能够建模触觉图片，并使用计算机视觉自动化某些重复和费力的步骤。 为了实现这些目标，公共信息机构将与盲人儿童锚中心、国家严重和感官残疾中心、科罗拉多有声图书图书馆和国家盲文出版社合作，所有这些组织都对促进视障儿童的紧急识字发展有共同的兴趣。 项目成果将促进我们对面向视障儿童的触觉图片的理解，以及对故事书图片的模拟过程的理解。

This research is motivated by the importance of a child's early experiences with picture books during emergent literacy, which is the period when a child gradually learns to read. Picture books connect visual literacy, cultural literacy, and print literacy, which is crucial for a child's literacy development. But only a limited number of children's books have tactile pictures accessible to blind children, and these typically cannot be modified to suit a child's particular needs. With this in mind, the PI will investigate 3D printing as the technical mechanism to physically realize a variation of an adaptive tactile picture that is optimized for a specific child and to "make" just one unique copy of it, something which is not possible with conventional printing approaches geared toward mass production of a uniform design. Achieving this vision will change the way tactile pictures are made available to visually impaired children; a parent or a teacher will be able to download a digital 3D model of a tactile picture book from a website, adapt the model for the child, 3D print the model, and read the resulting "one-of-a-kind" book together with the child. Research products will include a website for sharing 3D tactile pictures and open source tools for creating them.In this project, which integrates science, design, and engineering, the PI will exploit 3D printing to overcome the lack of adaptation in conventional one-size-fits-all tactile pictures. Specific Aim 1 will establish a new experimental framework, based on large-scale dissemination to families and video-based behavioral observations of children, for scientifically studying 3D-printed tactile pictures. Specific Aim 2 will uncover the principles to elicit preferences and abilities from a visually impaired child, and the adaptive transformations necessary to optimize the design of a tactile picture specifically for that child. Specific Aim 3 will introduce technical innovations to optimize the 3D printing of tactile pictures, to simplify 3D modeling software to empower more people to model tactile pictures, and to automate certain repetitive and laborious steps using computer vision. To achieve these goals, the PI will partner with the Anchor Center for Blind Children, the National Center on Severe and Sensory Disabilities, the Colorado Talking Book Library, and the National Braille Press, all of which are organizations with a shared interest in promoting emergent literacy development of visually impaired children. Project outcomes will advance our understanding of tactile pictures geared toward visually impaired children, and of the tactilization process for storybook pictures.