Touch- and Walkable Virtual Reality to Support Blind and Visually Impaired Peoples‘ Building Exploration in the Context of Orientation and Mobility

Der Zugang zu digitalen Inhalten und Informationen wird immer wichtiger für eine erfolgreiche Teilnahme an der heutigen, zunehmend digitalisierten Zivilgesellschaft. Solche Informationen werden meist visuell präsentiert, was den Zugang für blinde und sehbehinderte Menschen einschränkt. Die grundlegendste Barriere ist oft die elementare Orientierung und Mobilität (und folglich die soziale Mobilität), einschließlich der Erlangung von Kenntnissen über unbekannte Gebäude vor deren Besuch. Um solche Barrieren zu überbrücken, sollten technische Hilfsmittel entwickelt und eingesetzt werden. Es ist ein Kompromiss zwischen technologisch niedrigschwellig zugänglichen und verbreitbaren Hilfsmitteln und interaktiv-adaptiven, aber komplexen Systemen erforderlich. Die Anpassung der Technologie der virtuellen Realität (VR) umfasst ein breites Spektrum an Entwicklungs- und Entscheidungsoptionen. Die Hauptvorteile der VR-Technologie sind die erhöhte Interaktivität, die Aktualisierbarkeit und die Möglichkeit, virtuelle Räume und Modelle als Abbilder von realen Räumen zu erkunden, ohne dass reale Gefahren und die begrenzte Verfügbarkeit von sehenden Helfern auftreten. Virtuelle Objekte und Umgebungen haben jedoch keine physische Beschaffenheit. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es daher zu erforschen, welche VR-Interaktionsformen sinnvoll sind (d.h. ein angemessenes Verbreitungspotenzial bieten), um virtuelle Repräsentationen realer Gebäude im Kontext von Orientierung und Mobilität berührbar oder begehbar zu machen. Obwohl es bereits inhaltlich und technisch disjunkte Entwicklungen und Evaluationen zur VR-Technologie gibt, fehlt es an empirischer Evidenz. Zusätzlich bietet diese Arbeit einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Interaktionen. Nach einer Betrachtung der menschlichen Physiologie, Hilfsmittel (z.B. taktile Karten) und technologischen Eigenschaften wird der aktuelle Stand der Technik von VR vorgestellt und die Anwendung für blinde und sehbehinderte Nutzer und der Weg dorthin durch die Einführung einer neuartigen Taxonomie diskutiert. Neben der Interaktion selbst werden Merkmale des Nutzers und des Geräts, der Anwendungskontext oder die nutzerzentrierte Entwicklung bzw. Evaluation als Klassifikatoren herangezogen. Begründet und motiviert werden die folgenden Kapitel durch explorative Ansätze, d.h. im Bereich 'small scale' (mit sogenannten Datenhandschuhen) und im Bereich 'large scale' (mit einer avatargesteuerten VR-Fortbewegung). Die folgenden Kapitel führen empirische Studien mit blinden und sehbehinderten Nutzern durch und geben einen formativen Einblick, wie virtuelle Objekte in Reichweite der Hände mit haptischem Feedback erfasst werden können und wie verschiedene Arten der VR-Fortbewegung zur Erkundung virtueller Umgebungen eingesetzt werden können. Daraus werden geräteunabhängige technologische Möglichkeiten und auch Herausforderungen für weitere Verbesserungen abgeleitet. Auf der Grundlage dieser Erkenntnisse kann sich die weitere Forschung auf Aspekte wie die spezifische Gestaltung interaktiver Elemente, zeitlich und räumlich kollaborative Anwendungsszenarien und die Evaluation eines gesamten Anwendungsworkflows (d.h. Scannen der realen Umgebung und virtuelle Erkundung zu Trainingszwecken sowie die Gestaltung der gesamten Anwendung in einer langfristig barrierefreien Weise) konzentrieren.Access to digital content and information is becoming increasingly important for successful participation in today's increasingly digitized civil society. Such information is mostly presented visually, which restricts access for blind and visually impaired people. The most fundamental barrier is often basic orientation and mobility (and consequently, social mobility), including gaining knowledge about unknown buildings before visiting them. To bridge such barriers, technological aids should be developed and deployed. A trade-off is needed between technologically low-threshold accessible and disseminable aids and interactive-adaptive but complex systems. The adaptation of virtual reality (VR) technology spans a wide range of development and decision options. The main benefits of VR technology are increased interactivity, updatability, and the possibility to explore virtual spaces as proxies of real ones without real-world hazards and the limited availability of sighted assistants. However, virtual objects and environments have no physicality. Therefore, this thesis aims to research which VR interaction forms are reasonable (i.e., offering a reasonable dissemination potential) to make virtual representations of real buildings touchable or walkable in the context of orientation and mobility. Although there are already content and technology disjunctive developments and evaluations on VR technology, there is a lack of empirical evidence. Additionally, this thesis provides a survey between different interactions. Having considered the human physiology, assistive media (e.g., tactile maps), and technological characteristics, the current state of the art of VR is introduced, and the application for blind and visually impaired users and the way to get there is discussed by introducing a novel taxonomy. In addition to the interaction itself, characteristics of the user and the device, the application context, or the user-centered development respectively evaluation are used as classifiers. Thus, the following chapters are justified and motivated by explorative approaches, i.e., in the group of 'small scale' (using so-called data gloves) and in the scale of 'large scale' (using an avatar-controlled VR locomotion) approaches. The following chapters conduct empirical studies with blind and visually impaired users and give formative insight into how virtual objects within hands' reach can be grasped using haptic feedback and how different kinds of VR locomotion implementation can be applied to explore virtual environments. Thus, device-independent technological possibilities and also challenges for further improvements are derived. On the basis of this knowledge, subsequent research can be focused on aspects such as the specific design of interactive elements, temporally and spatially collaborative application scenarios, and the evaluation of an entire application workflow (i.e., scanning the real environment and exploring it virtually for training purposes, as well as designing the entire application in a long-term accessible manner)

Audification of Ultrasound for Human Echolocation

Individuals with functional blindness must often utilise assistive aids to enable them to complete tasks of daily living. One of these tasks, locomotion, poses considerable risk. The long white cane is often used to perform haptic exploration, but cannot detect obstacles that are not ground-based. Although devices have been developed to provide information above waist height, these do not provide auditory interfaces that are easy to learn. Development of such devices should adapt to the user, not require adaptation by the user. Can obstacle avoidance be achieved through direct perception? This research presents an auditory interface that has been designed with the user as the primary focus. An analysis of the tasks required has been taken into account resulting in an interface that audifies ultrasound. Audification provides intuitive information to the user to enable perceptive response to environmental obstacles. A device was developed that provides Doppler shift signals that are audible as a result of intentional aliasing. This system provides acoustic flow that is evident upon initiation of travel and has been shown to be effective in perceiving apertures and avoiding environmental obstacles. The orientation of receivers on this device was also examined, resulting in better distance perception and centreline accuracy when oriented outward as compared to forward. The design of this novel user interface for visually impaired individuals has also provided a tool that can be used to evaluate direct perception and acoustic flow in a manner that has never been studied before

Activity in area V3A predicts positions of moving objects

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Understanding Hand Interactions and Mid-Air Haptic Responses within Virtual Reality and Beyond.

Hand tracking has long been seen as a futuristic interaction, firmly situated into the realms of sci-fi. Recent developments and technological advancements have brought that dream into reality, allowing for real-time interactions by naturally moving and positioning your hand. While these developments have enabled numerous research projects, it is only recently that businesses and devices are truly starting to implement and integrate the technology into their different sectors. Numerous devices are shifting towards a fully self- contained ecosystem, where the removal of controllers could significantly help in reducing barriers to entry. Prior studies have focused on the effects or possible areas for implementation of hand tracking, but rarely focus on the direct comparisons of technologies, nor do they attempt to reproduce lost capabilities. With this prevailing background, the work presented in this thesis aims to understand the benefits and negatives of hand tracking when treated as the primary interaction method within virtual reality (VR) environments. Coupled with this, the implementation and usage of novel mid-air ultrasound-based haptics attempt to reintroduce feedback that would have been achieved through conventional controller interactions. Two unique user studies were undertaken, testing core underlying interactions within VR that represent common instances found throughout simulations. The first study focuses on the interactions presented within 3D VR user interfaces, with a core topic of buttons. While the second study directly compares input and haptic modalities within two different fine motor skill tasks. These studies are coupled with the development and implementation of a real-time user study recording toolkit, allowing for significantly heightened user analysis and visual evaluation of interactions. Results from these studies and developments make valuable contributions to the research and business knowledge of hand tracking interactions, as well as providing a uniquely valuable open-source toolkit for other researchers to use. This thesis covers work undertaken at Ultraleap over varying projects between 2018 and 2021

‘Subtle’ Technology: Design for Facilitating Face-to-Face Interaction for Socially Anxious People

PhD thesisShy people have a desire for social interaction but fear being scrutinised and rejected. This conflict results in attention deficits during face-to-face situations. It can cause the social atmosphere to become ‘frozen’ and shy persons to appear reticent. Many of them avoid such challenges, taking up the ‘electronic extroversion’ route and experiencing real-world social isolation. This research is aimed at improving the social skills and experience of shy people. It establishes conceptual frameworks and guidelines for designing computer-mediated tools to amplify shy users’ social cognition while extending conversational resources. Drawing on the theories of Social Objects, ‘natural’ HCI and unobtrusive Ubiquitous Computing, it proposes the Icebreaker Cognitive-Behavioural Model for applying user psychology to the systems’ features and functioning behaviour. Two initial design approaches were developed in forms of Wearable Computer and evaluated in a separate user-centred study. One emphasised the users’ privacy concerns in the form of a direct but covert display of the Vibrosign Armband. Another focused on low-attention demand and low-key interaction preferences – rendered through a peripheral but overt visual display of the Icebreaker T-shirt, triggered by the users’ handshake and disguised in the system’s subtle operation. Quantitative feedback by vibrotactile experts indicated the armband effective in signalling various types of abstract information. However, it added to the mental load and needed a disproportionate of training time. In contrast, qualitative-based feedback from shy users revealed unexpected benefits of the information display made public on the shirt front. It encouraged immediate and fluid interaction by providing a mutual ‘ticket to talk’ and an interpretative gap in the users’ relationship, although the rapid prototype compromised the technology’s subtle characteristics and impeded the users’ social experience. An iterative design extended the Icebreaker approach through a systematic refinement and resulted in the Subtle Design Principle implemented in the Icebreaker Jacket. Its subtle interaction and display modalities were compared to those of a focal-demand social aid, using a mixed-method evaluation. Inferential analysis results indicated the subtle technology more engaging with users’ social aspirations and facilitating a higher degree of unobtrusive experience. Through the Icebreaker model and Subtle Design Principle, together with the exploratory research framework and study outcome, this thesis demonstrates the advantages of using subtle technology to help shy users cope with the challenges of face-to-face interaction and improve their social experience.RCUK under the Digital Economy Doctoral Training scheme, through MAT programme, EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre EP/G03723X/1

Nutzerorientierte Gestaltung haptischer Signale in der Lenkung: Zum Einsatz direktionaler Lenkradvibrationen in Fahrerassistenzsystemen

Die vorliegende Arbeit widmet sich dem Einsatz von Lenkradvibrationen zur Informationsübermittlung an der Schnittstelle zwischen Fahrzeug und Fahrer unter Berücksichtigung physiologischer und psychologischer Aspekte. Als besondere Eigenschaft wird die Möglichkeit zur Erzeugung örtlich aufgelöster Vibrationen erkannt. Damit ist es möglich, über einseitige Lenkradvibrationen Richtungsinformationen an Fahrer zu kommunizieren. In drei Hauptstudien werden mit insgesamt 150 Probanden verschiedene Aspekte der Fahrerreaktion auf einseitige Lenkradvibrationen untersucht. Zunächst wird in einem grundlegenden Laborexperiment die intuitive Reaktion auf einseitige Lenkradvibrationen ermittelt. Im Anschluss wird die subjektive Präferenz der einseitigen Lenkradvibration in der Anwendung als Spurverlassenswarnsignal nachgewiesen. Zuletzt wird der Versuch unternommen, die einseitige Lenkradvibration zur Initiierung einer Ausweichreaktion in einer drohenden Frontalkollisionssituation einzusetzen.In this work applications of steering wheel vibrations are discussed. Tactile excitations that are perceived with mechanosensors in the skin of the human palm are explicitly focussed to differentiate from the state of the art. Because of the compatibility of the location of stimulus and response, haptic signals at the steering wheel are advantageously utilized to influence lateral vehicle guidance. The thesis summarizes findings of the psychophysical perception of tactile steering wheel vibrations and supplements these findings with new insights on the effect of variations in specific stimulus parameters on the perceived intensity and interpretation of messages transfered by vibrations at the steering wheel. A peculiar feature of vibro-tactile stimulation is the possibility to produce spatially distributed vibrations, which allows for communication of information on direction to the driver. Based on a review of the literature, a subjective preference of lane departure warning signals relying on vibro-tactile excitation and comprising information on directionality is hypothesized. This thesis therefore focusses on single-sided steering wheel vibrations. A single-sided vibro-tactile stimulation is assumed to be semantically associated with the rumble phenomenon induced in case of lane deparuture, thus facilitating the interpretation of the warning signal and leading to an enhancement of driver reactions when utilized as a lane departure warning signal. Three main studies examining a total of 150 subjects were conducted to reveal specific aspects of driver reactions towards single-sided steering wheel vibrations. First of all, a fundamental laboratory study examined intuitive reactions on single-sided steering wheel vibrations, legitimizing the stimulus-response mapping necessary to utilize this kind of signal as a lane departure warning signal. The second study confirmed the subjective predominance of the single-sided vibration as a lane departure warning signal when comparing this signal to alternative haptic warning signals at the steering wheel that were previously optimized for this application. In a final step, the third study examined the possible application of the single-sided steering wheel vibration to initiate an evasive steering reaction in case of an imminent forward collision situation Based on the results of the experimental studies conducted in this work, the utilization of the single-sided steering wheel vibration as a lane departure warning signal is strongly recommended. The signal both transfers the reason for the warning and recommends an action in a discrete and unintrusive manner. Any further application of the single-sided vibration, particularly the advice on a steering reaction in a collision situation, which was originally favored, can not be supported based on the present work

Proceedings of the 6th international conference on disability, virtual reality and associated technologies (ICDVRAT 2006)

The proceedings of the conferenc