1,006 research outputs found

    Impact of universal design ballot interfaces on voting performance and satisfaction of people with and without vision loss

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    Since the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002 that addressed improvements to voting systems and voter access through the use of electronic technologies, electronic voting systems have improved in U.S. elections. However, voters with disabilities have been disappointed and frustrated, because they have not been able to vote privately and independently (Runyan, 2007). Voting accessibility for individuals with disabilities has generally been accomplished through specialized designs, providing the addition of alternative inputs (e.g., headphones with tactile keypad for audio output, sip-and-puff) and outputs (e.g., audio output) to existing hardware and/or software architecture. However, while the add-on features may technically be accessible, they are often complex and difficult for poll workers to set up and require more time for targeted voters with disabilities to use compared to the direct touch that enable voters without disabilities to select any candidate in a particular contest at any time. To address the complexities and inequities with the accessible alternatives, a universal design (UD) approach was used to design two experimental ballot interfaces, namely EZ Ballot and QUICK Ballot, that seamlessly integrate accessible features (e.g., audio output) based on the goal of designing one voting system for all. EZ Ballot presents information linearly (i.e., one candidate’s name at a time) and voters can choose Yes or No inputs that does not require search (i.e., finding a particular name). QUICK Ballot presents multiple names that allow users to choose a name using direct-touch or gesture-touch interactions (e.g., the drag and lift gesture). Despite the same goal of providing one type of voting system for all voters, each ballot has a unique selection and navigation process designed to facilitate access and participation in voting. Thus, my proposed research plan was to examine the effectiveness of the two UD ballots primarily with respect to their different ballot structures in facilitating voting performance and satisfaction for people with a range of visual abilities including those with blindness or vision loss. The findings from this work show that voters with a range of visual abilities were able to use both ballots independently. However, as expected, the voter performance and preferences of each ballot interface differed by voters through the range of visual abilities. While non-sighted voters made fewer errors on the linear ballot (EZ Ballot), partially-sighted and sighted voters completed the random access ballot (QUICK Ballot) in less time. In addition, a higher percentage of non-sighted participants preferred the linear ballot, and a higher percentage of sighted participants preferred the random ballot. The main contributions of this work are in: 1) utilizing UD principles to design ballot interfaces that can be differentially usable by voters with a range of abilities; 2) demonstrating the feasibility of two UD ballot interfaces by voters with a range of visual abilities; 3) providing an impact for people with a range of visual abilities on other applications. The study suggests that the two ballots, both designed according to UD principles but with different weighting of principles, can be differentially usable by individuals with a range of visual abilities. This approach clearly distinguishes this work from previous efforts, which have focused on developing one UD solution for everyone because UD does not dictate a single solution for everyone (e.g., a one-size-fits-all approach), but rather supports flexibility in use that provide a new perspective into human-computer interaction (Stephanidis, 2001).Ph.D

    Multi-Sensory Interaction for Blind and Visually Impaired People

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    This book conveyed the visual elements of artwork to the visually impaired through various sensory elements to open a new perspective for appreciating visual artwork. In addition, the technique of expressing a color code by integrating patterns, temperatures, scents, music, and vibrations was explored, and future research topics were presented. A holistic experience using multi-sensory interaction acquired by people with visual impairment was provided to convey the meaning and contents of the work through rich multi-sensory appreciation. A method that allows people with visual impairments to engage in artwork using a variety of senses, including touch, temperature, tactile pattern, and sound, helps them to appreciate artwork at a deeper level than can be achieved with hearing or touch alone. The development of such art appreciation aids for the visually impaired will ultimately improve their cultural enjoyment and strengthen their access to culture and the arts. The development of this new concept aids ultimately expands opportunities for the non-visually impaired as well as the visually impaired to enjoy works of art and breaks down the boundaries between the disabled and the non-disabled in the field of culture and arts through continuous efforts to enhance accessibility. In addition, the developed multi-sensory expression and delivery tool can be used as an educational tool to increase product and artwork accessibility and usability through multi-modal interaction. Training the multi-sensory experiences introduced in this book may lead to more vivid visual imageries or seeing with the mind’s eye

    Enabling Seamless Access to Digital Graphical Contents for Visually Impaired Individuals via Semantic-Aware Processing

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    Vision is one of the main sources through which people obtain information from the world, but unfortunately, visually-impaired people are partially or completely deprived of this type of information. With the help of computer technologies, people with visual impairment can independently access digital textual information by using text-to-speech and text-to-Braille software. However, in general, there still exists a major barrier for people who are blind to access the graphical information independently in real-time without the help of sighted people. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-level and multi-modal approach aiming at addressing this challenging and practical problem, with the key idea being semantic-aware visual-to-tactile conversion through semantic image categorization and segmentation, and semantic-driven image simplification. An end-to-end prototype system was built based on the approach. We present the details of the approach and the system, report sample experimental results with realistic data, and compare our approach with current typical practice

    Mega - mobile multimodal extended games

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    Tese de mestrado em Engenharia Informática, apresentada à Universidade de Lisboa, através da Faculdade de Ciências, 2012As aplicações de entretenimento móvel têm hoje em dia um papel importante e significativo no mercado de software, abrangendo um grupo variado de utilizadores. Tudo isto se deve ao repentino sucesso de dispositivos de interacção inovadora, como o Wiimote da Nintendo, o Move da Sony e o Kinect da Microsoft. Por sua vez estas técnicas de interacção multimodal têm sido exploradas para jogos móveis. A recente geração de dispositivos móveis vem equipada com uma grande variedade de sensores, para além dos óbvios como ecrã táctil e microfone. Existem ainda outros componentes interessantes como bússola digital, acelerómetros, sensores ópticos. Os dispositivos móveis são também utilizados como máquina fotográfica digital, agenda pessoal, assim como para ver videos e ouvir música, e claro, para jogar jogos. Olhar para os novos grupos de utilizadores e para as novas formas de jogar e incluir nos jogos formas de interacção novas, usando os atributos e potencialidades de novas plataformas e novas tecnologias é pois um assunto pungente e deveras desafiante. Com este trabalho pretende-se estudar e propor novas dimensões de jogo e interacção com plataformas móveis, sejam smartphones, sejam tablets, que se adequem às mais distintas comunidades de jogadores. Pretende-se sobretudo explorar modalidades alternativas como as baseadas no tacto e vibração, assim como no áudio, combinadas ou não com outras mais tradicionais de foro visual. Almeja-se ainda explorar jogos em grupo, à distância e co-localizados, encontrando e estudando novas formas de expressão em jogos clássicos e jogos inovadores que envolvam pequenos conjuntos de indivíduos. A ubiquidade inerente aos dispositivos móveis faz ainda com que se tenham que encontrar neste jogos de grupo formas de fluxo de jogo que sustentem saídas e entradas rápidas ou menos rápidas sem que ainda assim se perca o interesse e a motivação de jogar. Este trabalho iniciou-se com uma pesquisa intensiva de trabalho relacionado, sobre a área de jogos móveis e suas multimodalidades, passando consequentemente pela acessibilidade inerente, jogos em grupo e suas formas de comunicação e conexão, e por último dando especial atenção a jogos de puzzle, sendo o tipo de jogo focado neste trabalho. Seguidamente, foi efectuado o levantamento de requisitos e exploradas as opções de jogo e de interacção relativas a jogos de puzzle móveis multimodais. No âmbito deste estudo foram criados três pequenos jogos sobre um conceito comum: jogos de puzzle. A primeira aplicação contém três modalidades diferentes de jogo: uma visual, apresentando um jogo de puzzle de imagens baseado nos tradicionais; uma segunda auditiva, que recria o conceito de jogo através de música, tornando as peças em pequenas parcelas sonoras da música de tamanhos equivalentes; e a terceira háptica, criando deste modo um puzzle com peças de padrões vibratórios diferentes. A segunda aplicação recriou o mesmo conceito de jogo, puzzle, no modo audio, mas retirando toda a informação visual, apresentando simples formas de interacção. A terceira aplicação apresenta uma abordagem sobre os jogos em grupo, permitindo jogar puzzles visuais e de audio em dois modos distintos: cooperativo, onde os jogadores têm de jogar em equipa de forma a conseguir completar o puzzle; e competitiva, onde os jogadores são forçados a ser mais rápidos que o adversário de modo a poderem vencer. Todas estas aplicações permitem ao utilizador definir o tamanho do puzzle e o nível de dificuldade, assim como escolher as imagens e músicas que pretendem resolver em forma de puzzle. Foram conduzidos vários testes de utilizador, nomeadamente um para cada aplicação desenvolvida. Sobre a primeira aplicação vinte e quatro participantes jogaram puzzles visuais e auditivos, distribuídos equitativamente pelas modalidades. Deste modo, cada participante resolveu nove puzzles de imagem ou nove puzzles audio distintos. Neste primeiro estudo procurou descobrir-se as estratégias de resolução dos puzzles, procurando principalmente igualdades e diferenças entre os diferentes modos. Para o segundo estudo foi usada a segunda aplicação desenvolvida, e foram abrangidos novamente vinte e quatro utilizadores, doze dos quais sendo cegos. Cada participante resolveu três puzzles audio diferentes. Relativamente a este estudo, foi proposta uma comparação entre os modos estudados anteriormente, especialmente sobre o modo audio, uma vez que foi usado o mesmo procedimento. Para os utilizadores cegos o objectivo foi provar que seria possível criar um jogo divertido, desafiante e sobretudo acessível a partir de um conceito de jogo clássico. Para o último estudo, vinte e quatro participantes, organizados em pares, jogaram puzzles visuais e de audio em modo cooperativo e competitivo. Cada conjunto de participantes resolveu quatro puzzles, um para cada modo de jogo por cada tipo de puzzle, o que significa dois puzzles visuais, um competitivo e outro cooperativo, e dois puzzles audio, sendo também um cooperativo e outro competitivo. O objectivo mais uma vez foi procurar as estratégias de resolução, permitindo também a comparação com outros modos anteriormente estudados. Todos os jogos foram transformados em dados contendo todas as acções que cada jogador tomou durante a resolução do puzzle. Esses dados foram depois transformados em números específicos de forma a poderem ser analisados e discutidos. Os valores obtidos foram divididos em três grupos principais, as tentativas de colocação de peças, o número de ajudas, e o tempo de conclusão do puzzle. Em relação às tentativas de colocação de peças é possível identificar a ordem correspondente segundo três formas distintas, pela classificação do tipo de peças, pela disposição das peças na fita e pela ordem sequencial do puzzle. Os resultados do estudo mostram que uma mesma estratégia de resolução de puzzles é usada através de todos os modos estudados, os jogadores optam por resolver primeiro as zonas mais relevantes do puzzle, deixando as partes mais abstractas e confundíveis para o final. No entanto, parente novas modalidades de jogo, pequenas percentagens de utilizadores mostraram diferentes estratégias de resolução. Através das opiniões dos utilizadores é também possível afirmar que todas as aplicações desenvolvidas são jogáveis, divertidas e desafiantes. No final foi criado um conjunto de componentes reutilizáveis e um conjunto de parâmetros para a criação de novos jogos. Numa linha de trabalho futuro foram propostos vários objectivos interessantes que podem promover e reaproveitar o trabalho desenvolvido. Deste modo foi criado um jogo de puzzle baseado na primeira aplicação desenvolvida, mantendo os modos visual e audio, de forma a poder integrar no mercado de aplicações móveis, permitindo deste modo, um estudo em larga escala sobre os mesmos conceitos estudados neste trabalho. Foi também pensada a criação de um servidor centralizado, permitindo conter os resultados de todos os jogadores de forma a criar um ranking geral, podendo deste modo incentivar os jogadores a melhorar o seu desempenho, e ajudar a promover o próprio jogo. Outra alternativa passa por melhorar e aperfeiçoar o modo háptico, de forma a criar mais uma modalidade viável sobre o mesmo conceito de jogo, de forma a poder ser também estudada de forma equivalente. O puzzle para invisuais pode também ser melhorado e aperfeiçoado de forma a criar mais desafios através da inclusão dum modo háptio. E por fim, não menos importante, criar novas dimensões de jogo em grupo, permitindo jogar os modos cooperativo e competitivo em simultâneo, tendo por exemplo duas equipas de dois jogadores cada, a cooperar entre si para completar o puzzle, e de certa forma a competir contra a outra equipa para terminar primeiro e com melhores resultados. O objectivo seria, mais uma vez, estudar as estratégias usadas.Mobile entertainment applications have an important and significant role in the software market, covering a diverse group of users. All this is due to the sudden success of innovative interaction devices such as Nintendo’s Wiimote, Sony’s Move and Kinect’s Microsoft. On the other hand, these multimodal interaction techniques have been explored for mobile games. The latest generation of mobile devices is equipped with a wide variety of sensors, in addition to the obvious such as touch screen and microphone. There are other interesting components such as digital compass, accelerometers and optical sensors. Mobile devices are also used as a digital camera, personal organizer, to watch videos and listen to music, and of course, to play games. Looking for the new users groups and for the new ways to play the games and include new forms of interaction, using the attributes and capabilities of new platforms and new technologies is an issue as poignant and very challenging. This work aims to study and propose new dimensions of play and interaction with mobile platforms, whether smartphones or tablets, which suit most distinct communities of players. It is intended primarily to explore alternative modalities such as touch-based and vibratory, as well as audio based, combined or not with traditional visual ones. It also aims at exploring group games, spatially distributed and co-located, finding and studying new forms of expression in classic games and innovative games that involve small sets of individuals. The ubiquity inherent to mobile devices leads us to find input and output flows which support rapid or less rapid entry commands, without losing the interest and motivation to play. In addition to the design and implementation of three or four small game applications intended to create a set of reusable components and a set of guidelines for creating new games

    A Support System for Graphics for Visually Impaired People

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    As the Internet plays an important role in today’s society, graphics is widely used to present, convey and communicate information in many different areas. Complex information is often easier to understand and analyze by graphics. Even though graphics plays an important role, accessibility support is very limited for web graphics. Web graphics accessibility is not only for people with disabilities, but also for people who want to get and use information in ways different from the ones originally intended. One of the problems regarding graphics for blind people is that we have few data on how a blind person draws or how he/she receives graphical information. Based on Katz’s pupils’ research, one concludes that blind people can draw in outline and that they have a good sense of three-dimensional shape and space. In this thesis, I propose and develop a system, which can serve as a tool to be used by researchers investigating these and related issues. Our support system is built to collect the drawings from visually impaired people by finger movement on Braille devices or touch devices, such as tablets. When the drawing data is collected, the system will automatically generate the graphical XML data, which are easily accessed by applications and web services. The graphical XML data are stored locally or remotely. Compared to other support systems, our system is the first automatic system to provide web services to collect and access such data. The system also has the capability to integrate into cloud computing so that people can use the system anywhere to collect and access the data

    Enabling audio-haptics

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    This thesis deals with possible solutions to facilitate orientation, navigation and overview of non-visual interfaces and virtual environments with the help of sound in combination with force-feedback haptics. Applications with haptic force-feedback, s

    Usability in Public Services and Border Control: New Technologies and Challenges for People with Disability

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    As new security technologies are introduced in public services, such as border control and mass transportation systems, their accessibility for the disabled needs to be evaluated. A large part of the population is directly or indirectly concerned with disability of permanent or temporary nature. This report starts with a brief overview of the scale of disability and associated challenges and puts them in the context of the public policy on disability. In particular it highlights two existing policies: the EU Transport Regulation on the Disabled Air Passengers and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, both of which are of relevance to mass transportation. The report then analyses the usability challenges in public services and border control, including the issues of accessibility, safety and communication. These need to be addressed in future policy proposals. Technical support to the present and future policies related to disability complying public services is seen as a potentially important role for JRC. This is illustrated through a review of relevant JRC projects: VOICE, SESAMONET and Secure Airport. New technologies in public services can be viewed by the disabled from two perspectives: assistive technologies and neutral technologies. The assistive communication technologies were adopted in projects VOICE and SESAMONET to improve accessibility in public services. On the other hand, the use of biometric identification in airports and border control is to enhance security for all and therefore it is assumed to be neutral, with respect to disability. This assumption was investigated in the Secure Airport project.JRC.G.6-Security technology assessmen

    Interactivity Improves Usability of Geographic Maps for Visually Impaired People

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    International audienceTactile relief maps are used by visually impaired people to acquire mental representation of space, but they retain important limitations (limited amount of information, braille text, etc.). Interactive maps may overcome these limitations. However, usability of these two types of maps had never been compared. It is then unknown whether interactive maps are equivalent or even better solutions than traditional raised-line maps. This study presents a comparison of usability of a classical raised-line map vs. an interactive map composed by a multi-touch screen, a raised-line overlay and audio output. Both maps were tested by 24 blind participants. We measured usability as efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction. Our results show that replacing braille with simple audio-tactile interaction significantly improved efficiency and user satisfaction. Effectiveness was not related to the map type but depended on users' characteristics as well as the category of assessed spatial knowledge. Long-term evaluation of acquired spatial information revealed that maps, whether interactive or not, are useful to build robust survey-type mental representations in blind users. Altogether, these results are encouraging as they show that interactive maps are a good solution for improving map exploration and cognitive mapping in visually impaired people
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