Desktop Co-robotic Assistant for Graphics and Text Access and Creation for Individuals who are Blind or Visually Impaired

1605226 -Pawluk仅在美国，就有大约800万人失明或视力受损。为了使这些人发挥潜力并与同龄人竞争，重要的是他们有同等的机会获得信息，以确保及时完成教育和工作任务。在这些环境中，计算机已经变得至关重要，无论是在同一个房间还是通过网络远程创建信息并与他人协作。许多这种交互在本质上是高度空间化的，无论是在图形的使用和创建中，通过鼠标或光标与他人交互，还是在网页上的文本空间布局中搜索信息。对于盲人或视力受损的人来说，这种空间信息基本上是无法获得的。该项目旨在通过开发一个机器人助手来解决这个问题，该机器人助手可以向计算机提供触觉和盲文输入和输出，以及帮助个人探索计算机窗口。该资助的主要目标是提供一个连贯的触觉系统，该系统可以通过一个可以以单手姿势使用的单一设备在整个触觉页面/窗口上提供有效的图形和盲文输入和输出。我们的目标是首先开发一个桌面合作机器人提供共享控制与用户通过触觉界面，以帮助探索图形和全页盲文信息。 一个鼠标形状的触觉输入/输出组件将安装在合作机器人提供空间分布的触觉反馈的第二和第三手指的手。 与固定版鼠标相结合，还可以通过按钮输入同时输入盲文文本，并在未来创建图形信息。 在开发这一系统时，我们将采用一种涉及所有利益相关者的渐进式行动设计方法。然后，将验证创建的系统是否可以访问图形和整页文本信息，以及与当前商业和/或研究设备相比是否可以编辑整页文本。 此外，该系统将进一步发展的技术，以有效地沟通用户和合作者之间的关注焦点。

1605226 - PawlukIn the U.S. alone, there are approximately 8 million individuals who are blind or visually impaired. In order for these individuals to reach their potential and be competitive with their peers, it is important that they have equivalent access to information to ensure timely completion of education and work tasks. Computers have become essential in these environments, creating information and collaborating with others, whether in the same room or remotely over the web. A lot of this interaction is highly spatial in nature, whether in the use and creation of graphics, interacting with others through a mouse or cursor, or searching for information in the spatial layout of text on a web page. For individuals who are blind or visually impaired, this spatial information is largely inaccessible. This project is intended to address this issue by developing a robotic assistant to provide haptic and Braille input and output to a computer, as well as aid an individual in exploration of the computer window.The main goal of this grant is to provide a coherent haptic system that provides effective input and output of graphics and Braille on a full haptic page/window through a single device that can be used in a single hand posture. The objectives are to first develop a desktop co-robot to provide shared control with the user over a haptic interface to aid in exploring graphical and full page Braille information. A mouse-shaped tactile input/output component will be mounted on the co-robot to provide spatially distributed tactile feedback to the second and third fingers of the hand. Combined with a stationary version of the mouse, this will also allow simultaneous input of Braille text through button inputs and, in the future, the creation of graphical information. In developing this system, we will use a Participatory Action Design approach involving all stakeholders. The created system will then be validated in accessing graphical and full page text information, as well as editing full page text compared to current commercial and/or research devices. In addition, this system will be furthered by the development of techniques to effectively communicate the focus of attention between the user and collaborators.