Investigation of Property of Tactile Sense in Communication for the Deaf Blind and Its Application for Assistive Technology

(1)聋哑人日常生活辅助技术的研究与开发我们开发了一种使聋哑人能够理解他/她所处的声环境的设备。从麦克风输入的声音转换成振荡信号，然后输出到与聋哑人连接的振动器。我们做了一个实验，让一个聋哑人用这个设备通过翻译与另一个人交谈。因此，人们注意到，由于使用了该系统，通信过程发生了变化。系统的震动可能会在一开始给聋哑人带来一定的精神负担，但他们可以逐渐学会与之相关的对话方式。(2)无需人工翻译的交流辅助技术我们重点研究了手指盲文作为聋哑人盲人的实时互动交流方式，其速度和准确性与语音大致相当。首先，我们为使用盲文的聋哑人开发了一个WWW浏览器和一个文本编辑器，以实现对互联网的可访问性（电子邮件和WWW）。其次，我们开发了一个会议系统，让聋哑人也能参与到社会交流中来。该系统可以控制与会者的轮流，以便给聋哑人一个参加会议的机会。

(1) Research and Development of Assistive Technology for Daily Life of the deaf blindWe developed a device where a deaf blind person could understand his/her acoustic environments. The sound input from a microphone translated into oscillation signal and then output to the vibrator which is attached with the deaf blind person. We performed the experiment where a deaf blind person with this device talked to another person via interpreter. As a result, it was observed that the processes of communication were changed due to use of the system. Vibration from the system may give some mental work-load to the deaf blind person at the beginning, however, they could gradually learn the way of conversation involving it.(2) Assistive Technology for communication without human translatorWe focused on the Finger Braille as a real-time interactive communication method for the deaf blind people, which is approximately equivalent to speech in terms of speed and accuracy. First, we developed a WWW browser and a text editor for the deaf blind using Finger Braille in order to realize the accessibility to the Internet (e-mail and WWW). Second, we developed a conference system which allowed a deaf blind person to participate in a social communication. The system can control the turn of participants in order to give a deaf blind person a chance of joining to the conference.