internal navigation through interval vibration impacts for visually impaired persons: enhancement
TRANSCRIPT
Internal Navigation through
Interval Vibration Impacts for
Visually Impaired Persons:
Enhancement of Independent Living
!A thesis submitted to the
Graduate School
of the University of Cincinnati
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
!Master of Design
!in the School of Design
of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning
by
!Xuan Teng
!B.A. Jiangnan University
Wuxi, China 2013
!Thesis Committee:
Craig M. Vogel, MF.A
Gerald Michaud, MA
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ABSTRACT
Visually impaired people have high demands of mobility in both outdoor and indoor navigation.
There’re many existing technologies, solutions and products for supporting their outdoor mobilities.
While, there’s less designer or engineers pay much attention to the demand of internal navigation for
the small community. Existing products or services mainly focus on detecting and avoiding
obstacles. Seldom products or services can help visually impaired people to find a specific items or
spaces. Technology advance in smart phone industry bringing powerful computing ability and other
new interaction methods through integrated hardware. Many visually impaired people are using
smart phone by voice command, others are all have high motivation to buy one or at least have a
trial.!
!The author collaborated with Cincinnati Association for The Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI) and
try to figure out the problem mentioned above. Solid secondary research has been made prior to this
study for understanding human demands, current solutions and its’ restrictions. Several interviews,
tests and co-creations have done to verify the effectiveness of using smartphone based interactions
and navigation system and preferences of interactions from visually impaired people and specialists:
including test of human senses, preferences for interactions, preferences for wearable / non-
wearable devices and tests between audio based notification system and vibration based notification
system. There are two main factors in internal navigation for visually impaired people: 1). notifying
orientation and distance; 2). identifying objects. A series of studies achieved in this thesis also
provide a strong support for voice command and linear interval vibration which can notify navigation
information (including orientations and distance). The navigation system include a passive RFID
system and a smart phone to identify different object easily and quickly. A series of passive RFID
tags can be attached to any surfaces of objects or spaces that visually impaired people want to
reach. After defining the specific items through voice command software, users will constantly
notified by vibration. The frequency of vibration can vary based on the distance between the target
object and the user. The more closer distance, the the higher frequency of vibration will be reached.
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Data show that visually impaired people have abilities to solve the internal navigation by following
linear interval vibration notifications. Meanwhile, they are able to communicate with their smart
phones through voice command functions. A passive RFID system only required to be settled down
once—there is no need for maintenance and very user friendly for visually impaired to use besides
set up. It is very complex to set up by visually impaired people, while it can be figured out by
employees in associations for the bind and visually impaired, nurses, family members or any other
sighted. Overall, the experience of internal navigation has been improved.!
!A guideline was made for helping other designers or researchers aim to developing internal
navigation related products, systems or interactions, including general guidelines and specific
guidelines for interactions. A scenario was made in charter 5.8.5. to illustrate the working process of
the final design proposal.!
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© 2016 XUAN TENG ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Though only my name appears on the cover of this thesis, there were many people help me
along the way. They made my studies possible, meaningful, and valuable.
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my thesis chair Professor Craig M. Vogel. He
wholeheartedly respected my research interests and helped me along the way. He guided me
with his rich experience and provide incisive suggestions whenever I have difficulties. I would
also like to thank my committee member Professor Gerald Michaud for his insightful comments
and constructive critique. Gerald was a great help to me with design details and wrap up my
thoughts into contents by questioning my thoughts all the time and encouraging the use of
better grammar. He inspired me to keep exploring and reach new aspects of design.
!I would also thankful to Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI) for
providing great support and impressional resources. Employees in CABVI also provide great
help for ground my research: Meridith Owensby helped me understand the visually impaired
groups and evaluated prototypes from professional perspectives; Paul Smith helped me
improve my concept and research method, even communicating between visually impaired
individuals and me. Thank you for all participants involved in the research.
!I would like to say a big thank you for all my professors, friends and classmates, you really
make my University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP)
works meaningful. I also want to thank you for my mum and dad, thank you for supporting me
financially and mentally. I would not be able to live and study in a foreign country without you.
!!!!
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CONTENT!
1. Problem Statement!
2. History!
3. Demands of Visually Impaired People!
3.1. Increasing population of Visually impaired people!
3.1.1. Serious problem of independent living!
3.1.2. Navigation difficulties for the blind and partially sighted!
3.1.3. Low-income & aging issues for visually impaired people!
3.2. A white cane still perform well for visually impaired people today!
3.3. Motivation and ability to learn for many visually impaired individuals !
3.4. Existing navigation technologies designed for visually impaired people to support !
interactions !
3.5. Limitations of existing products or solutions for navigation !
4. Problem identification for internal navigation!
4.1. Research process!
4.2. Key factors for the internal navigation system!
5. Define the system: smartphone, interval navigation and passive RFID system!
5.1. Notifying orientation and distance by interaction!
5.2. Identify objects by smartphone and passive RFID system!
5.3. Pricing restrictions!
5.4. Connection and interaction!
5.5. The working process of the final design proposal!
5.5.1. Problem!
5.5.2. Internal navigation system solution!
5.5.3. Everyday usage!
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5.5.4. Breakthrough of new internal navigation system!
6. Ideas for figuring out the internal navigation for visually impaired people. !
6.1. Research for the RFID technology !
7. Interact with specialists and visually impaired individuals !
7.1. Research methods: Constant Co-creation !
7.1.1. Case studies from Storm Clinical Decision Support toolkit by using co-creation !
method into design!
7.1.2. Co-creation methods and activities utilized in researching visually impaired !
people!
7.1.2.1. Toolkit and interactions selecting and “Bring and Have a try” method!
7.1.2.2. Select ideal prototype(s) or product(s) and associated interaction(s)!
7.1.2.3. Scenarios given to participants!
7.2. Co-creation sessions were divided into 2 stages!
7.2.1. Co-creation sessions with visually impaired specialists!
7.2.2. Co-creation with visually impaired employees in CABVI!
7.2.3. Co-creation sections with visually impaired individuals!
7.2.4. List key findings from co-creation sessions!
7.3. Data analysis from co-creation session: Secondary devices VS Existing devices!
7.3.1. Secondary devices!
7.3.2.1. Secondary devices: wearable or not!
7.3.1.2. Secondary devices: preference for potential solutions through existing !
7.4. Existing non-wearable devices!
7.4.1. Potential solutions from existing devices!
7.4.1.1. A smart device!
7.4.1.1.1. Smart phone interactions!
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7.4.1.1.2. How people utilize their device: observations through contextual !
inquiry.!
7.5. Choose between a smart crutch and a smart phone base solution!
7.6. Define interactions between device and visually impaired people!
7.6.1. Interact with 5 human senses!
7.6.2. Existing solutions for interacting with visually impaired people!
7.6.3. Peripheral or noticeable interaction!
7.7. Analysis from usability test for the first draft prototype: Peripheral or noticeable interaction!
7.7.1. Audio based notification system!
7.7.2. Vibration based notification system!
7.7.3. Conclusion!
7.8. Guidelines of design proposals!
7.8.1. Stimulation was applied to usability tests!
7.8.2. Passive RFID tags!
7.8.3. Smart phone ideas!
7.8.4. Phone cover ideas for RFID readers!
7.8.5. Frequency of the frequency of vibration!
7.9. Potential human factors to support interactions !
7.9.1. Human senses !
7.9.2. Difference between congenitally blind individuals and late blind individuals !
7.9.3. Inspirations from Braille:!
7.9.4. The idea of using active touch to measure objects and forms. !
7.9.5. Problems of active touch !
7.9.6. The idea of using passive touch to measure objects and forms !
8. Guidelines for future designs regarding internal navigations for visually impaired !
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people!
8.1. General Guidelines!
8.2. General guidelines for Interactions!
9. Conclusion!
!Bibliography!
!Appendix A - Potential interaction methods and carriers for internal navigation!
Appendix B: Limitations of existing products or solutions for navigation!
Appendix C: Case Study for Storm Clinical Decision Support Toolkit Project!
Appendix D: Preferences for potential solutions through existing wearable device!
Appendix E: Comparisons of Human Senses!
Appendix F: Potential interactions for interacting with visually impaired people!
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LIST OF FIGURES
Table 1. Difference of active and passive FRID tags!
Table 2. Pros of Active RFID tags and Passive RFID tags!
Table 3. Advantages of disadvantages of 5 human senses for visually impaired people !
Table 4. Advantages and disadvantages of audio and touch base interactions!
!Figure 1. Problem identification!
Figure 2. Research process!
Figure 3. Define the system!
Figure 4. The working process of the final design proposal!
Figure 5. Breakthrough of new internal navigation system!
Figure 6. Usage of passive RFID tags and Active RFID tags !
Figure 7. Prototypes and products used in Co-creation!
Figure 8. First draft prototype used in usability test!
Figure 9. Task 1: Point out where is the sound comes from!
Figure 10. Task 2.1 Navigation through vibration system!
Figure 11. Task 2.2 navigation through audio based notification system and potential problems!
Figure 12. Time spent for figuring out the source of sound!
Figure 13. Preferences between audio based system and vibration based system!
Figure 14. Simulated functional prototype!
Figure 15. Relationship between confidence to find the target and frequency of vibration!
Figure 16. Relationship between frequency of vibration and distance between a user and!
the target. !
Figure 17: This figure shows the Mueller-Lyer stimuli !
Figure 18: It illustrates two forms of the horizontal-vertical illusion!
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Figure 19: Task 2.1 Navigation through vibration system
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1
1. Problem statement:
Internal navigation by the Visually Impaired (In the rest of the thesis, the author will use VI as the
abbreviation to describe the Visually Impaired for brief) can be improved by smart phone based
interactions and navigation system.
2. History
● Visually impaired people, especially the blind are suffering from poor internal space navigation
which impacts their ability to live independently and significantly lowers their quality of life.
● Few products, services or systems respond to the emerging needs of internal space navigation for
the visually impaired.
● Technology advances in the smart phone industry are bringing powerful computing ability and
other new interaction methods through integrated hardware, which might be utilized to improve
independent living abilities for the visually impaired.
3. Demands of Visually Impaired People
3.1. Increasing population of Visually Impaired People
Every 5 seconds one person in the world goes blind (Foundation et al., n.d. 2011). It is also
estimated that at least 7 million people become visually impaired each year and that the number of
blind people worldwide is increasing by 1 - 2 million per year (McGavin 1999). Blindness and vision
impairment are major public health problems causing a substantial human and economic toll on
individuals and society including significant suffering, disability, loss of productivity & mobility, and
diminished quality of life for millions of people. The population of visually impaired people incurred a
sharp increment from 28 million people in 1975 (Thylefors B et al.1995), 37 million people in 2002
(WHO health report) to the estimate of 76 million people based on the prediction of global population
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in 2020 (Latinovic, S. 2006), which indicates that the global increment of visually impaired persons is
rising significantly. Reduced vision among mature adults has been shown to result in social isolation,
increased risk of falling and resultant hip fractures, depression, family stress, and ultimately a
greater tendency to be disabled or to die prematurely (Cdc Us 2006). Vision impairment often affects
people’s abilities to drive, read, learn, or simply attend to common household or personal tasks.
3.1.1. Serious problem of independent living
There are some serious obstacles to independent living (especially indoor space navigation) for
visually impaired people which were found by the author through observations and interviews in
collaboration with the Cincinnati Association For the Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI). This
organization is involved in designing proper tools to improve independence of visually impaired
people living in the Greater Cincinnati area.
* Visually impaired people have to spend months or years to get familiar with their living
surroundings, and they have to physically remember every location of their belongings which is
easily disordered by any mis-positioning.
* Blindness offers them limited mobility and high risk of collisions, which diminishes their willingness
to move into unfamiliar indoor space (i.e. friends’ homes, grocery stores, library etc.).
* Visually impaired people often possess a strong will to live independently and want to be treated
as sighted people.
* A compelling number of visually impaired people are already using a smart device to accomplish
tasks in their life, while others have a strong willingness to trial a smart device.
* The majority of them have less motivation to operate more than 2 devices at the same time.
* It’s common for visually impaired people to live independently in their home with assistance from a
visiting nurse, family members or friends. .
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3.1.2. Navigation difficulties for the blind and partially sighted.
Navigation difficulties have also been identified as one of the main hindrances to independent living
for people who are blind or partially sighted. (Fryer, Freeman, and Pring 2013)
3.1.3. Low-income & aging issues for visually impaired people:
The fact is more than 82% of all blind people are 50 years of age or older (McGavin 1999), more
than 90% of the world’s visually impaired people live in developing countries (WHO) and nearly 90%
of visually impaired people live in low-incoming settings (McGavin 1999). Currently, the available
options ranging from low-end to high-end are far too expensive for them to afford, so the cost of the
whole system is a critical factor to be considered.
3.2. A white cane can still performs well for visually impaired people today
A white cane can help visually impaired people by detecting obstacles or elevation changes. The
white cane will also alert others that the person does not see well. The researcher has already found
a fact through research: Visually impaired people could still use a white cane as usual (which they
are used to) to ensure safety during moving to a target. They are well trained in the use of their white
cane to detect obstacles and verify risks. They would prefer to have a white cane on hand when they
stand in an unfamiliar space or even a familiar space with subtle changes. The National Federation
of the Blind and other associations also strongly recommend visually impaired people use white
canes to increase independent living and increase their safety. VisionAware, founded by American
Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and Reader's Digest Partners for Sight Foundation, is a website for
adults with vision loss, their families, caregivers, healthcare providers and social service
professionals. It suggests that the long white cane is an essential tool for people who are blind.
3.3. Motivation and ability to learn for many visually impaired individuals
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Since more than 82% of all blind people are 50 years of age or older (McGavin 1999), they might
also lack confidence and identity to be a successful learner. Research at The Ohio State University
Medical Center indicates that there are a number of potential barriers for the senior learner: vision
changes, hearing changes, intellectual ability, short term memory loss, motivation, anxiety and
rigidity and cautiousness. Many of these same barriers exist for visually impaired persons beyond
the obvious vision impairment. For a successful design, the operation method of the product should
be as easy as possible (while the system can be complex, the final output should be as simple as
possible), and would be preferable to have some connection, relationship or similarity to existing
products they may already use in their everyday life.
3.4. Existing navigation technologies designed for visually impaired people
to support interactions
There are lots of existing way-finding technologies for visually impaired people, but few of them
address the interior navigation problem. Although it may seem like a small problem, it can actually
limit a visually impaired persons’ ability to live independently. There are potential opportunities for
GPS and other wireless technologies, braille, wearable devices with multiple sensors, white canes,
guide robots or even smartphones to be considered as good vehicles to provide interior navigation
for the visually impaired. Based on research listed in the Appendix A, a white cane or a smart phone
could both be considered as potential vehicles for future design solutions.
3.5. Limitations of existing products or solutions for navigation
Existing products, such as a white cane, a GPS navigator or navigation APP, or existing solutions,
such as guide dogs, mobility assistant, or even existing non-verbal tactile interface or verbal cue
based interactions between machine and visually impaired people have proven to hold potential
problems for interacting and supporting internal navigation for visually impaired people (detailed
research and analysis can be found in Appendix B). There is an interesting finding from the
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research: existing products or solutions are only designed for detecting obstacles and not
necessarily recognizing a specific item or a space. Meanwhile, almost all of them aim to address
outdoor navigation. That is to say, there is a huge opportunity to assist visually impaired people for
recognizing and defining a specific item or a space within an internal space. For example, there
might be a device or service to assist a visually impaired person in finding their pill box, or to read
information on a bottle of medication, or even help them find the location of a bathroom if they are
staying in an unfamiliar space.
Existing navigation technologies or products designed for visually impaired people only
support obstacle detection and avoidance. Existing technologies or products have many
problems, including technical restrictions, cost and usability limitations, which will be demonstrated
later in this thesis. The problems defined above will be the core design focus in this thesis.
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4. Problem identification for internal navigation
Visually impaired people (VI) have high demands of mobility in both outdoor and indoor
navigation. Existing products or services are mainly focused on deterring and avoiding
obstacles. Seldom products or services can help VI to find specific items or spaces. Technology
advances in the smartphone industry are bringing powerful computing ability and other new
interaction methods through integrated hardware. Many VI (even the blind) utilize voice
commands via smartphone and those not currently using such devices show a desire to
purchase or at least try one. Also, many VI whose independence has suffered due to their
impaired vision often find it difficult to ask for help immediately. Meanwhile, many VI tend to live
in low income settings and live alone for long periods of time. Existing internal navigation
techniques require the VI to remember locations and appearance characteristics of every single
item in a given space to effectively navigate the space and identify items within it. This presents
an especially heavy memory burden for many VI. (82% VI are 50 plus (McGavin 1999)).
Figure 1. Problem identification
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4.1. Research process
Figure 2. Research process
Solid secondary research has been conducted prior to this study for understanding human demands,
current solutions and their restrictions. Several interviews, tests and co-creations have been
conducted to verify the effectiveness of using smartphone based interactions and navigation system
and preferences of interactions from visually impaired persons and specialists: including test of
human senses, preferences for interactions, preferences for wearable / non-wearable devices and
tests between an audio based notification system and vibration based notification system.
4.2. Key factors for the internal navigation system.
Designing an internal navigation system for visually impaired persons (especially the blind) can
be critical in many aspects. Blind persons suffer from visual loss and have less ability to
distinguish particular objects. Currently, visually impaired persons have to remember every
single item or floor plan to support self internal navigation, which given the heavy memory
burden, presents potential accuracy issues. Before finally reaching a target item, a VI must first
determine the precise location of the item, then distinguish the target item from a potential host
of adjacent items.
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It is important to define an interaction or several interactions which would provide orientation the
target and distance between the target item and the visually impaired person. Meanwhile, a
system which can identify different items in space should be defined in response to the heavy
burden of memory for visually impaired people. Last but not least, safety is always the first
priority for visually impaired people which should be achieved by avoiding hazards and
collisions.
5. Define the system: Smartphone, Interval vibration and passive
RFID system
Key obstacles to internal navigation for the visually impaired may be solved by the new internal
navigation system: 1. Interaction will be used to notify orientation and distance; 2. Passive RFID
system will be used to identify objects. Safety will be achieved by existing white canes. (figure 3)
Figure 3. Define the system
5.1. Notifying orientation and distance by interaction
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Interval vibration was utilized to notify visually impaired individuals of target orientation and the
distance between the whole system will utilize the integrated voice recognition features in smart
phone to ensure human-device communication. Interval vibration was also applied into the system
as a smart phone based haptic interaction to solve two factors in indoor way-finding for visually
impaired people: orientation and distance. Certain audio feedback will be given to users to identify
the working status of the system.
5.2. Identify objects by smartphone and passive RFID system: voice command plus passive
RFID system
Users identify objects they want and the system identifies correct objects based on users’
commands. An integrated Voice Command feature in the smart phone will help visually impaired
users to communicate with their device. Later, a passive RFID system can help users to identify
specific objects or spaces.
5.3. Pricing restrictions
Nearly 90% of visually impaired people are living in the low-incoming settings (McGavin 1999). That
is to say, a low-cost passive RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system (including multiple
passive RFID tags & a smart phone based RFID reader) is required to achieve cheap and reliable
wireless connection between the smart phone and individual objects. A passive RFID system is the
most promising technology which meets the both the design requirements and cost constraints.
5.4. Connection and interaction
Each passive RFID tag will be nominated before being attached to the surface of objects or spaces
by sighted persons (i.e. nurses, employees from any blindness association or any relatives from
visually impaired individuals). They can be pasted onto the surface of any objects, information can
be transmitted between smart phone and RFID tags. Users can hold their smart phone and rotate
their body to scan passive RFID tags in the target space. Each passive RFID tags will be powered
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by an integrated RFID reader from the cell phone cover. Once paired, a vibrator inside of the smart
phone could generate interval-vibration to provide haptic navigation information.
5.5. The working process of the final design proposal (defined in a scenario).
Figure 4. The working process of the final design proposal
5.5.1. Problem:
Tim is a 65-year-old congenitally blind male living in Cincinnati. He has an android phone and has
experienced a serious internal navigation problem since moving into his new house. Aside from a
nurse visit every Friday morning. Tim has to live by himself for the majority of daytime from Monday
to Friday.
5.5.2. Internal Navigation System solution:
Smart phone based interaction + Passive RFID system.
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His son bought and installed a set of internal navigation system for him. A typical navigation system
includes one phone cover which has an integrated Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader and
several passive RFID tags. There is a one time “naming” process which require a sighted person to
name each passive RFID tags and pasted onto each objects or spaces. Tim pointed out any objects
or spaces he may want to reach in the future. In the meantime, his son using his father’s smart
phone, downloads and opens an app designed for the system. Then, he can use the smart phone to
name each passive RFID tags (input keywords into each passive RFID tags) (the passive RFID tags
will be powered and communicated through the RFID reader which is integrated with the phone
case). For example, if Tim wants to find his headphones in the future, so his son will type in the
keyword “Headphone” in the app and put a specific passive RFID tag under the smart phone to
“nominate” or code the tag. After that, the RFID tag will be pasted on the surface of the headphones.
Once nominated, no further action is required unless new objects or spaces need to be identified.
5.5.3. Everyday usage:
When Tim wants to listen to some music, he need only utter the phrase “Find my headphones” into
his smart phone by utilizing the integrated voice command feature. Then, he can begin scanning the
room by holding his smart phone at arms length and rotating his body. Once the system finds the
specific RFID tag pasted on the headphones, Tim’s smart phone will start vibrating to indicate the
orientation of the headphones. The frequency of vibration will change based on the distance
between the smart phone and passive RFID tags (the vibration frequency will increase as he closes
the distance between the smart phone and the passive RFID tag). One clear advantage with the
vibration interaction is that, with the smart phone bond to hand, the user can actually use his hand to
make physical contact with an object which will bring them confidence. Meanwhile, once users’
hands are getting far away from the target (passive RFID tag), the frequency of vibration will change
(get weak), users will automatically notice the difference and adjust the position.
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5.5.4. Breakthrough of new internal navigation system
Figure 5. Breakthrough of new internal navigation system
Existing navigation products or solutions can only help visually impaired persons to detect obstacles
nearby and could potentially be too expensive to buy. However, the new system can lower the
memory burden for visually impaired persons by using the passive RFID system to identify different
items in the space. Furthermore, the system can significantly decrease the time for distinguishing the
target item and other distractions, which can also increase the accuracy of overall navigation,
thereby avoiding other risks.
6. Ideas for using RFID to facilitate internal navigation for the
visually impaired.
A final goal was set - find a way to facilitate internal navigation for visually impaired persons,
including helping them to navigate from their current position to move and acquire any single
item they want, or direct them from their current position to any space they want to go. There
are two main features of the internal navigation system which should be resolved and included
in the design proposal: a system which can locate positions of individual items or even spaces
and an interaction which can constantly direct the user to a destination from their current
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location. Based on that, an RFID based solution was introduced by employees working in the
Cincinnati Association for The Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI) and adopted by trainers
working in CABVI with visual impairment and visually impaired individuals. They strongly
believed that an RFID system could contribute significantly to building a visually impaired
friendly space or even society. They also helped the researcher to define certain interactions
which might work well between visually impaired persons and machines. There are two potential
modes of interaction: touch and hearing. The most common method for products interacting
with visually impaired persons are audio solutions (including audio notification and audio
assistants), and touch solutions (including both active and passive touch). For example anactive
touch solution will include some embedded tactile surfaces or dots (i.e. braille) which are
distinctive and manufactured during mass-production. The active touch solution requires the
user to actively touch an object and feel any convex or concave points carefully and objectively.
Active touch is useful for visually impaired persons to explore new items or features because it
can provide more details for them. While the passive touch is far more distinctive, the most
common and effective way to utilize the passive touch is with vibration. During the co-creation
process, interviewees all agreed to use the vibration and audio based interaction for the future
design proposal. Specialists and visually impaired individuals preferred vibration as the ideal
way of interaction, for reasons which will be cited later.
6.1. Research for RFID technology.
Figure 6. Usage of passive RFID tags and Active RFID tags (adapted from Atlas RFID Solutions - JOVIX)
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Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems use electromagnetic fields to automatically
identify and track tags attached to the surfaces of objects or spaces. There are two categories
of RFID tags: Active RFID tags and Passive RFID tags. The tags contain electronically stored
information. Passive RFID tags have no internal power source and instead are powered by
radio waves generated by a RFID reader. Active RFID tags are powered by a local battery and
can be operated from hundreds of meters away from the RFID reader. Unlike a barcode, the tag
does not require a position within the line of sight of the reader, so it can be placed anywhere,
even embedded in a tracked object. RFID is a method for automatic identification and data
capture (AIDC).
Based on information from a world leading provider of RFID solutions, the figure below was
made to describe the differences between active and passive RFID tags in further detail.
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Table 1. Difference between active and passive RFID tags
Table 2. Pros of Active RFID tags and Passive RFID tags
It is obvious that a passive RFID system is more suitable for visually impaired persons because:
1. A passive RFID system is much cheaper than an active RFID system (Nearly 90% visually
impaired people are living in low-incoming settings (McGavin 1999)). 2. Changing a battery can
be a nightmare for visually impaired individuals. 3. The reading range of passive RFID tags is
enough for internal usage. 4. More and more manufactures are using passive RFID tags to
replace traditional barcodes which means that you are likely to see more products which carry
passive RFID tags in the coming future.
7. Interaction with specialists and visually impaired individuals
7.1. Research methods: Constant Co-creation:
Co-creation sessions along with integrated design toolkits can become a bridge to connect both
researchers and participants to ensure engagement from both sides. These sessions show
incredible capacity to help researchers understand decision making, gather insights, provide
ideas and concepts. It is especially useful for researchers who are not familiar with the
associated field or dealing with complex problems. In the co-creation session, users are invited
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into the design process which helps researchers achieve the goal of gathering as much
feedback and insights as possible. In this session, it is also crucial to discuss different solutions
through manifold perspectives, such as the pros and cons, effectiveness, efficiency and so forth.
The author was one of the members of the Storm project. The author will only show the case
study part of the Storm project, especially focusing on research methodology, tools used in co-
creation, data collection, feedback and insights and data synthesis. Some co-creation methods
and activities were also utilized in interactions between the author and visually impaired
persons.
This co-creation session is innovative for several reasons. First, the activities designed for co-
creation will help non-designers engage in design research. Second, the activities designed for
co-creation will also help researchers to gather as much information as possible. In addition, it is
a great tool to minimize the knowledge and communication gap between game organizers and
game participants.
7.1.1. Case studies from Storm Clinical Decision Support toolkit by integrating co-
creation method into design
The objective of the Storm project is to develop an innovative toolkit which will translate the
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) guidelines,
including hydroxyurea, into clinical practice. Providers will have the educational tools to discuss
HU and SCD complication management with patients. This is a critical first step towards the
long-term goal of optimizing evidence-based care and the use of HU in the SCD population.
This intervention could potentially have a substantial impact on improving health outcomes and
decreasing health care costs in pediatric and adult SCD.
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The effectiveness of co-creation and associated co-creation activities has been evaluated in the
Storm project. A detailed report of the research process used in the Storm project is available in
appendix C. Associated activities include: carding sorting, “The Hydroxyurea Depot” (borrowed
from The Home Depot), associated tool boxes and tool belts. Individuals could select and shop
for the tools they want in The Hydroxyurea Depot, ranking their top five and placing them inside
of the tool belt. The final top five tools will be selected and fill in the toolbox after the group
discussion. Physicians need to use tools they picked to actually solve problems mentioned in
scenarios given by researchers.
7.1.2. Co-creation methods and activities utilized in researching the visually impaired
7.1.2.1. Toolkit and interactions selection and “Bring and Have a try” method:
Tools: Based on the previous research session, the researcher created some useful tools to
gather feedback and insights from both visually impaired persons and experienced specialists
who commonly care for the visually impaired. These specialists were invited because the author
wants to ensure that the design proposal accurately identifies the indoor navigation problem.
Details can be found in Appendix C.
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Figure 7. Prototypes and products used in Co-creation
An obvious difficulty for communicating and interacting with visually impaired persons is their
loss of vision. It is almost impossible to show any printed documents or conduct paper based
activities. Visually impaired persons rely heavily on their touch and hearing abilities. Verbal
communication can be vague and objective, which might cause confusion to visually impaired
persons - confusion occurred frequently in the very first stage of communication between the
researcher and visually impaired persons until the constant co-creation method was utilized. It is
often helpful to bring physical prototypes or appearance models to let visually impaired persons
“have a try”. The “Bring and Have a Try” method was evaluated by the researcher during the co-
creation session. It proved to be an effective and efficient way to demonstrate ideas to visually
impaired persons while creating minimal confusion.
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For the test, the researcher brought as many commonly used wearable or non-wearable
devices or prototypes as possible. Each prototype employed one of several unique interaction
methods, such as vibration, audio notification, VoiceOver and voice assistant. Some of these
interactive prototypes could be modified easily during the test, which allowed interviewees to
pick their ideal prototype(s), product(s) and interaction(s).
7.1.2.2. Selecting ideal prototype(s) or product(s) and associated interaction(s)
Each participant could select the preferred prototype(s) or product(s) and associated
interaction(s) or that they felt best facilitated indoor navigation. Everybody has to share their
thinkings which can give others inspirations and provide valuable information for the author.
People can also be inspired by on another. It was noted that during group discussions, some
participants began modifying their own tool belts by adding and dropping tools from them based
on feedback from other participants. Several participants even created their own unique tools,
something which had not been anticipated by the author.
7.1.2.3. Scenarios presented to participants.
The researcher presented participants with several scenarios designed to analyze their thought
process and document any mistakes or potential improvements. Scenarios were presented to
the participants which led them through the whole journey of several detailed tasks. The author
created 3 different scenarios in total, all of which were interacted with by each interviewee. Each
interviewee was guided through the 3 specific scenarios, familiarizing themselves with the whole
journey and filling in the blanks based on their past experience as a visually impaired person.
Visually impaired people also need to focus on the same scenarios. Each scenario was
separated into three sections: obstacles, tools & interactions and goals. Participants were asked
to write down the potential obstacles they might face. Participants could then select tools /
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interactions they wanted to use from the toolbox and write those down on a poster (or speak
them aloud). If there were other tools outside of the toolbox they thought were important, again
they were directed to write it on the poster (or speak them aloud). which goals they want to
reach. Since it is very hard to use language to describe a certain interaction, associated
interaction physical prototypes were given to the visually impaired people to achieve a better
understanding of their selected goal. The purpose of these scenarios was to encourage visually
impaired specialists and visually impaired people to actually simulate and manage associated
problems mentioned in the scenarios by using the tools or interactions they selected from the
toolbox. They can help the research to judge whether those tools or interactions are suitable for
doing so or not without useless imagination. What’s more, researcher can also stand by and see
if there are any steps missing.
Scenario 1:
Tim is a 65-year-old congenitally blind male living in Cincinnati. He has an android phone and he
moved to his new house just last week. He also suffers from hearing loss. Aside from a nurse visit
every Friday morning, Tim has to live by himself for the majority of the daytime from Monday to
Friday. He needs to remember the floor plan and arrangements of objects in his new home as soon
as possible.
Scenario 2:
May is a 35-year-old female who went blind at age 13. She is a shopaholic and a self-described
“failure” at managing her belongings. She has been known to spend more than an hour searching for
an item she wants. Now, she has a date with her boyfriend, James and has been tasked with
tracking down her wallet and pink bag.
7.2. Co-creation sessions were divided into 2 stages:
Methods used: Participatory design
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Prototypes or products which relate to the potential solutions were provided by the author to
improve understanding of ideas. Potential interactions were simulated by associated physical
prototypes due to the difficulty of verbally explaining interactions. It became easy for participants
(especially visually impaired people) to understand the ideas quickly and accurately through the
whole research process. The author conducted several co-creation activities with visual
impairment specialists (including both sighted employees and visually impaired employees
working in Cincinnati Association For the Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI)) and visually
impaired individuals.
7.2.1. Co-creation with sighted visual impairment specialists in CABVI
Five sighted and experienced employees were invited to join in co-creation sessions. Both of
them were current employees working in Cincinnati Association For the Blind and Visually
Impaired (CABVI). They really championed the idea of using RFID & Smart phone based
interaction and were eager to see it become a reality. Potential solutions were given to them to
be critiqued, feedback and insights were collected during the communication and problems
were highlighted for the future modification. They also helped the researcher in identifying risks
to avoid during subsequent user testing.
7.2.2. Co-creation with visually impaired employees in CABVI
Two visually impaired employees were invited to join in co-creation sessions. Both of them were
trainers who taught independent living skills to visually impaired people. One of them was a
previously sighted person, which gave him particular insight into bridging the gap between
sighted people and visually impaired people. Before becoming visually impaired, he was an
engineer for many years. His experiences provided a unique perspective which proved
invaluable in helping me develop the system.
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7.2.3. Co-creation sessions with visually impaired individuals
In this session, it was also crucial to discuss different solutions through manifold perspectives,
such as the pros and cons, effectiveness, efficiency and so forth. The majority of interviewees
are 55 plus. They also helped the author to define their ideal products; they would strongly
prefer to use their existing devices instead of something totally new due to the increase in
memory burden and other drawbacks of an unfamiliar device.
7.2.4. List key findings from co-creation sessions:
Problems:
* Many visually impaired individuals need to live by themselves for the majority of the day.
There are many potential complications associated with independent living, particularly those
related to mobility.
* Visually impaired persons often encounter indoor navigation problems, especially entering
unfamiliar indoor spaces. Although it is possible for them to remember many items in a
familiar space, it is very time consuming. For example, a visually impaired individual often
spends more than 1 year getting familiar with the arrangement of objects inside their home.
Not surprisingly, many interviewees complain about the excessive burden of memorizing the
position of every single item in their home. The situation worsens if rearrangements occur or if
new items are introduced into the environment. Mistakes might also occur for many
interviewees who are experiencing memory loss.
Interactions:
* It is crucial to indicate the operational status of a product for visually impaired persons
because of their blindness. It is important to have certain interactions or notifications to remind
visually impaired persons: “I am still working!”
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* Intersections of current solutions: sound tags & barcode
Existing solutions: “sound tags” - a device which a client can tape onto any surface after
recording voice reminders into it. It is a basic tool used to identify different items and even act as
a clock or a timer. Sound tags only work when the visually impaired person has physical
contact with it.
Other obvious drawbacks:
1. “Sound tags” are powered by battery which requires a battery change (renew). Obviously,
this is a nuisance even for a sighted person, but can be especially cumbersome for someone
with a visual impairment.
* 2. “Sound tags” needs special care. A sudden loss of function may be caused simply by a
low or dead battery. It is always a good idea to apply peripheral design, which does not
require much attention on tracing interaction. For someone who is accustomed to holding a
white cane with their hand, a complex system may introduce unwanted hazards or
distractions.
* Vibration works better than the audio notification system. An audio system might potentially
bother other people, which may in turn cause embarrassment to the user. A potential noise
problem may occur in both private and public internal spaces. (Background noise may mask
the sound) Meanwhile, an audio system might not as accurate as the vibration, audio can only
provide a vague direction from where the audio comes. Furthermore, an audio system might
not be the best application for the elderly because they often have accompanying hearing loss
as well.
* There might be an optional audible signal when the phone is over the item.
Engineering:
* Avoid designs which rely on a non-rechargeable battery; it is a difficult task for visually
impaired persons to change batteries by themselves.
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* It is preferable to design a universal product that works in both private & public internal
spaces.
* An RFID based system might work well to facilitate indoor navigation. In the co-creation
session, the barcode and RFID system was introduced by employees who worked in the
CABVI. They agreed that a RFID system has potential possibilities to become a successful
tool which can contribute to internal navigations and even other areas. A RFID system can
easily handle multiple requests (one of the trainer in CABVI is a former electronics engineer
before he went blind). A passive RFID tag may be more user friendly than an active RFID tag
because it doesn't require batteries.
* It is better to design something wearable and should as close as the hand, because it is
common for a visually impaired person to use their hand to verify whether they grab the right
object or are entering the right space. It is also good if there is a design which can be handled
or worn on the hand.
* A secondary device can be very easy to lose and forget. For example, for a fitness tracker, it
is easy for a visually impaired person to forget to wear it. Meanwhile, there are pretty high
possibilities for both sighted people and visually impaired people to stop use a fitness tracker
after several months. What’s more, users also need to charge their wearable device
frequently, otherwise, it will run out of batteries.
* There are compelling numbers of visually impaired individuals who are using smart devices,
and others are highly motivated to buy one or at least learn how to operate one. A smart
phone may be a great solution because existing smart phones are able to vibrate when the
alarm is activated or a phone call is received.
* The future design proposal should limit the total amount of devices (less than two, including
the white cane) which has to be interacted with by visually impaired people.
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* Visually impaired people prefer to use their white canes even in a space they are very familiar
with because of highly sensitive safety issues (i.e. collision, falling down and potential
injuries). There might be some possibility to design something related to the white cane.
* Visually impaired persons preferred using their existing devices because it is very hard for
them to learn operations of new devices with brand new technologies. The majority of
interviewees are 55 plus, which may contribute to difficulty learning new operations.
7.3. Data analysis from co-creation session: Secondary devices VS Existing
devices
7.3.1. Secondary devices
7.3.2.1. Secondary devices: wearable or not?
Almost 100 percent of my interviewees agreed that the potential terminals (iterations) must be
mobile and wearable because the high demand for mobility. The emerging wearables trend and
existing solutions also support the ideas above. The size of the product should be as compact
as possible (without shrinking functions and usability) to achieve an optimal user experience.
7.3.1.2. Secondary devices: preferences for potential solutions through existing wearable
device
Here, the author used body storming to collect preferences and feedback from visually impaired
participants. Body storming is a unique design research method which allows users to imagine
the potential iterations for a designed problem. For example, in a typical body storming session,
a series of scenarios was provided by the author to a visually impaired person encouraging
them to imagine the potential secondary devices which could actually solve the internal
navigation problem. Any secondary device mentioned in the previous discussion was evaluated
and scored by the visually impaired person based upon appearance, size, feasibility and
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usability. Tangible wearable devices which could potentially become solutions were also
provided by the author to ensure minimal confusion.
In the co-creation session, potential secondary devices (vest, wristband, ringlet, necklace,
simulated google glass, headband, a pair of earplugs, belt, a set of stickers, attachable devices,
wearable clothing and a headphone) were provided by the author or simulated by other means
(Figure 7, page 17) and tested or critiqued by both visual impairment specialists and visually
impaired individuals. Detailed information can be found in appendix D.
In general, there are multiple reasons for visually impaired people not choosing a secondary
devices to solve the internal navigation problem: 1. Potential safety problems 2. Health and
comfort concerns 3. Size and weight issues 4. Price and additional costs 5. Fashion 6. Usability
7. Lost and found 8. Cost of memory 9. Dressing habits 10. Appearance 11. Ethical issues
While they prefer a product with a compact size, a long battery life and a fashionable look, it
should also be easy to operate and have a reasonable life-cycle cost. There are also technical
obstacles to interact with the secondary devices. Most of the secondary devices are compact
enough to be wearable, but that compact size also limits the potential functions of the devices
using current technologies. There is just not enough space to install essential electronic
components and a battery with enough power capacity. There are additional reasons why
visually impaired people don’t like secondary devices: 1. they prefer to use their white cane in
most instances to ensure safety. In most cases, secondary devices must be connected with a
smart phone and must be used simultaneously. Users perceive that it would be too complicated
to interact with multiple devices to sense their surroundings. Also, people pay less attention to
their secondary devices. A secondary device is much easier to get lost than a major device like
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a smart phone or a tablet because they are peripheral enough. So secondary devices
(additional devices) are not an ideal interaction solution for visually impaired people.
7.4. Existing non-wearable devices
7.4.1. Potential solutions from existing devices:
7.4.1.1. A smart device
Smart devices are widely used by many people today, including the visually impaired. A smart
device can be a smart phone, a smart watch, or even a tablet. A smart phone is becoming an
essential device for many individuals. Through the interviews, the author was surprised to see
how the smart phone was growing in popularity in the Visually Impaired community. Those
individuals who do not have a smart phone currently also have high motivation to buy one. The
majority of them also rely on their smart phone to deal with their everyday challenges. There are
huge possibilities with a smart phone.
7.4.1.1.1. Smart phone interactions
There are many essential electronic components inside of a typical smart phone, including a
vibrator, accelerometer, gyroscope, microphone, speaker etc. Screen based, audio based and
vibration based interactions are three major interaction methods between a user and a smart
phone. For a visually impaired person, both audio based and vibration based interaction can be
incorporated into further design iterations.
7.4.1.1.2. How people utilize their device: observations through contextual inquiry.
Currently, visually impaired people are using the talking and voice command features to
communicate with their smart phones to address everyday challenges, including editing emails,
figuring out outdoor navigations, opening apps etc. Vibration is only used in the silent mode for
a peripheral notification which might have more possibilities in the future.
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Impressive moments:
1. A visually impaired gentleman received a text message and uses the integrated Voice Over
functions of his iPhone to speak items on the screen: 1). they can select an item to be notified
by tapping once. 2). They can activate the selected item by double-tapping the screen.
2. A visually impaired lady was using the Voice Over feature to actually operate her iPhone:
find, open and operate an app through the Voice Over featue.
3. A visually impaired gentleman was using Siri to open an app and send a text message right
after.
Although many people can operate an iPhone and it’s Voice Over feature, there are still many
users who do not know how to use the Voice Over feature or are non-iPhone users. The screen
based interactions may apply with some restrictions.
Conclusion, in the research session, the author discovered that existing devices have great
capabilities and possibilities to interact with visually impaired people. Existing smart devices,
especially smart phones, have potential opportunities to support internal navigation for the
visually impaired. Talking features, audio notifications, voice commands and vibrations are four
major interaction methods for interacting between smart phone devices and visually impaired
users, all of which might be utilized in further designs. Vibration might have higher possibilities
based on previous studies.
7.5. Choice between a smart cane and a smart phone based solution
A smart cane is one of the ideal carriers of the RFID device, while there are some
potential problems of the smart cane:
1. Higher initial buying cost and training demands compared to an existing smart phone.
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2. Less accurate as compared to a smart phone.
A simple test was conducted by the author: visually impaired participants were asked to find an
item nearby. Instinct drove them to use their hand to explore the accurate location of the item
and determine whether this was the correct item or not. For sighted people, they were asked to
use an eye mask to block their eyesight and complete the same task. The result was the same:
people would prefer to use their bare hand to explore an uncertain object. The researcher also
discovered in the interview session that visually impaired people preferred to use their hand
instead of their walking stick in locating a specific item in an internal space. Although they
consider a walking stick a great tool to avoid potential obstacles and collisions and for narrowing
down and providing a vague perception of the location, it was not a great tool to provide an
accurate location or navigation information, especially for small items or undefined spaces.
As for smart phones, the devices have been in use for years and users have become so familiar
with their smart device and its associated interactions, that it typically requires less effort to
learn new features. Not to mention, a smart phone is small enough to be held in one hand,
providing constant navigation indications and preserving a users’ human nature and the
accuracy of their hand. A smart phone wins the battle in this case.
7.6. Define interactions between device and visually impaired persons:
7.6.1. Interact with 5 human senses:
There are five senses for the normal individual, including touch, hearing, sight, smell and taste.
Obviously, a visually impaired person would be unable to rely on their vision to support the tasks
required for navigation. For the four remaining senses, most have some potential to drive effective
solutions and support the ultimate navigation problem. Currently, hearing and touch are two major
senses to be utilized by visually impaired people in their daily life. The instant feedback allows
information to be transmitted easily. By observing a visually impaired persons’ daily life, research
30
showed that touch and hearing are the most commonly used senses which visually impaired
individuals rely on, both to acclimate to their surroundings (including environments) or locate an
item.
The senses of touch and hearing can be considered two good ways to fill the gap of internal
navigation. Smell and taste might be an interesting way to interact with people, but isn’t a
feasible solution. A visual solution is not an ideal option for the blind even though 1. A legally
blind person might actually see to some degree, but not enough to be useful; 2. A totally blind
person can see almost nothing, but may still have the ability to perceive light. Interviews
suggested that a visual solution might not be the best way to achieve the goal of improved
internal navigation.
Comparison of Senses
Human Senses Advantages Disadvantages
Touch 1. Visually impaired people rely most on touch for pattern perception or item recognition. 2. Visually impaired people often have heightened touch sensitivity. 3. Widely used in existing products designed for visually impaired people. 4. Visually impaired people prefer to use sense of touch for navigation and other purposes. 5. One of the most efficient way to communicate with visually impaired people
6. Constant training from birth 7. Ability to carry enough information
1. Visually impaired people need additional training (such as learning Braille) for sensing detailed information through sense of touch. 2. Potential risk of injury in case of sharp edges, hot/cold surfaces, boiling water or other factors.
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Hearing 1. One of the most common ways for communicating or interacting with visually impaired people
2. Visually impaired people usually have strong hearing abilities. 3. One of the most efficient way to communicate with visually impaired people
4. Widely used in existing products designed for visually impaired people. 5.Constant training from baby
7. Ability to carry enough information
1. Rich distractions
2. Potential noise source which might bother others
3. Potential safety issues for multi tasks problems
4. Voice Clarity
5. Different understanding levels 6. Different education levels or cultural backgrounds
Smell 1. Interesting interaction 1. Less frequently used interaction method
2. Requires time for transmission of odors
3. Easy to be distracted
4. Objective and not accurate
5. Limited ability to carry information 6. Low preference in the visually impaired communities
Taste 1. Interesting interaction 1. Less frequently used interaction method
2. Requires time for transmission of flavors
3. Easy to be distracted
4. Objective and not accurate
5. Limited ability to carry information 6. Low preference in the visually impaired communities
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Visual 1. 85% of individuals with visual impairment still have light perception and light projection
1. Obvious low feasibility and usability for visually impaired persons 2. Low preference in the visually impaired communities 3. Potential high cost of iterations 4. Weakness and inaccuracy of their visual abilities 5. Distractions and restrictions 6. Potential conflicts between sighted people and visually impaired people (such as a potential solution by using strong illustration) 7. Not user friendly for total blindness community because of “no light perception”
Table 3. Advantages of disadvantages of 5 human senses for visually impaired people
It is obvious that visually impaired people would prefer the sense of hearing and touch. They agree
that hearing and touch will be more useful and feasible based on their personal experience. Their
thoughts also supported by existing products which are designed for them: almost all interaction
between user and machine utilizes the sense of hearing, while seldom do products use their sense
of touch – this may represent a potential breakthrough point. Other senses such as smell, taste and
sight are less feasible in this case. Detailed information can be found in appendix E.
7.6.2. Existing solutions for interacting with visually impaired people
Existing solutions for interacting with visually impaired people
Existing Interactions Advantages Disadvantages
1. Audio
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1.1 Talking features 1.Distinctive in silent environment 2. Recognizable in many cases, ideal for notification purposes
3. One of the most efficient way to communicate with visually impaired people
4. Widely used in existing products designed for visually impaired people. 5. Ability to carry enough information
1. Voice Clarity and rich distractions
2. A potential noise which might bother others
3. Potential safety issues for multi tasks problems
4. Relatively high intensity of notification
5. Different thought logic flow between human and machine
6. Loss of privacy
7. May not be applied to visually impaired people who have hearing impairment as well (i.e. some elderly)
1.2 Audio notification 1.Distinctive in silent environment 2. Recognizable in many cases, ideal for notification purposes 3. Widely used in existing products designed for visually impaired people.
1. Rich distractions
2. A potential noise which might bother others
3. Relatively high intensity of notification
4. Loss of privacy 8. May not be applied to visually impaired people who have hearing impairment as well (i.e. some elderly)
2. Touch
2.1 Active touch 1. Active touch can provide more detailed information for visually impaired people
1. Requires active motion on the part of visually impaired users (i.e. move their body parts) to touch and feel an object, not ideal interaction for notification 2. Time consuming
2.2 Passive touch 1. Distinctive in both silent and crowded environment 2. Peripheral and recognizable, ideal intention for notification purposes 3. User friendly for senior persons or visually impaired people along with hearing impairments 4. Does not require any actions from visually impaired people
1. Cannot give rich details about information
Table 4. Advantages and disadvantages of audio and touch based interactions
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Talking features (especially the voice command system) for visually impaired users are widely used
by visually impaired people to communicate or send commands to their smart phone. Touch is an
effective way for visually impaired users to sense their surroundings or individual items, however,
touch can also cause problems, especially some illusions of touch. There are two types of touch:
active touch and passive touch. Active touch is an ideal method to help the visually impaired sense
as many details as possible, but it is objective, time consuming, less distinctive and even has higher
risks of injuries. Passive touch can only provide a vague sense of information, although it is
distinctive enough to serve as a notification to a visually impaired person. Detailed information can
be found in appendix F.
Based on studies above, an interaction between audio and touch or their combination can be
considered for future design proposals, which shows their effectiveness of communicating with
visually impaired people. Certain problems may still apply for future design iterations and can be
addressed later: For an audio interaction: it is critical to solve the annoyance problem and enhance
its distinctiveness, otherwise it should be omitted from the design. For a touch based interaction, it is
also crucial to select between a passive touch and active touch. For notification, it is obvious that
passive touch works better than active touch because it is distinctive enough to be distinguished.
More details will be given in this thesis later.
7.7. Peripheral or noticeable interaction (Analysis from usability test for the
first draft prototype).
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Figure 8. First draft prototype used in usability test
A rough prototype was made to evaluate the interactions and associated functions. Detailed test
instruction is available in the appendix. For this experiment, an investigation of the usability of a
rough prototype navigation device within an unfamiliar space that is catered specifically to a
visually impaired individual. Test participants included sightless people and sighted individuals
who simulated a visual impairment by using an eye mask.
The device was able to mimic the real RFID reader and passive RFID tags: the RFID readers
can read information from passive RFID tags. When the RFID reader finds the target tag, the
device will wirelessly power the passive RFID tag and make it generate noise to attract a user’s
attention. Certain interaction (vibration and audio output) can also convey the relative distance
to the target: the less distance between subject and target, the higher the frequency and
intensity of vibration and audio. Subjects were asked to complete a certain number of tasks
using the prototype. The information was used to analyze the prototype in understanding areas
of improvement.
Simulated RFID tags were attached on the targets and placed around the room to mimic a
layout of an unfamiliar indoor space such as a meeting room or a living room. The simulated
RFID reader (rectangular foam with integrated vibrator inside), for the purpose of this
experiment, was installed on a smart phone as an accessory cover. Subjects were positioned at
the room entrance and were asked to begin walking around the room as normal. They needed
to navigate by themselves by following the audio or vibration instructions.
Tasks completed by the subjects included:
· Task 1: Determine where the sound is coming from:
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Targets affixed with simulated RFID tags (door bells) were placed on the secure surface and the
researcher operated remote controls of doorbells randomly to make the doorbell sound.
Subjects stood in the original place and used fingers or hands to point out where the audio
came from.
· Task 2.1: Get access to the next target from the current location through vibration provided by
the researcher: A researcher randomly made one doorbell ring, allowing the subject to perceive
a sense of direction to the target. A vibrator would start vibrating once the subject was close to
the target. The frequency and intensity of the vibration would change based on the distance
between the subject and the target: the less distance between subject and target, the higher the
frequency and intensity of vibration. The strongest vibration level was roughly equal to the
vibration of the typical smart phone, posing little risk of harm to the individual.
· Task 2.2 Get access to the target from the current location through audio feedback provided
by the researcher: A researcher randomly made one doorbell ring and let the subject get
directions to the target. Sound tags would start broadcasting once the subject got close to the
target. The frequency and intensity of the noise would change based on the distance between
subject and target: the less distance between subject and target, the higher the frequency and
intensity of the noise. The strongest noise level was roughly equal to the noise of the typical
doorbell, posing little risk of harm to the individual.
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Figure 9. Task 1: Point out where is the sound comes from
Figure 10. Task 2.1 Navigation through vibration system
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Figure 11. Task 2.2 navigation through audio based notification system and potential problems
7.7.1. Audio based notification system:
Figure 12. Time consumption for determining the source of sound
All most all visually impaired people or simulated visually impaired people could determine
where the sound was coming from (Figure 7). However, participants complained about the
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accuracy of the audio based notification system. The potential problem is that they only have a
vague sense of the orientation instead of an accurate sense. In addition, after getting close to
the source of the audio notification, they found difficulty in reaching the target because they
could not determine the accurate location of it. What’s more, almost all participants complained
about the potential noise problem for both their family members and their neighbors, even for
themselves. They strongly believed that a constant “beep” system would add too much stress.
The frequency and intensity change of the “beep” notification was perceived as too intense also
made them uncomfortable to use it. Last but not least, an audio based notification system
requires a buzzer and a battery in each RFID tag, which will significantly increase the price of
each tag and decrease the usability for visually impaired people.
7.7.2. Vibration based notification system:
Figure 13. Preferences between audio based system and vibration based system
Many participants appreciated the vibration based solution because it is easy to use and
requires no action to sense the notification. The vibration is a peripheral way of notification,
which is much more natural and comfortable compared to the intense audio based notification
system. The vibration based system is also distinctive for people to sense the vibration;
participants could more accurately sense the orientation of the target and locate the target
through the frequency and intensity changes of vibration.
7.7.3. Conclusion
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Audio based notification system is not an ideal solution for notifying and navigating visually
impaired people in an internal space. There are several reasons:
1. Many visually impaired people complains about the annoying audio based notification
system. The constant “beep” was widely considered as an annoying noise. Visually impaired
people all agreed that it would be embarrassing to use it in an internal space, especially in a
public indoor space. It could also potentially bother others living with the visually impaired
person.
2. The audio based notification system would add much anxiety to the users because of the
constant “beep” noise.
3. In a private internal space, the audio based notification system might prove to be too noisy for
neighbors of visually impaired people. And it is so wired to use a constantly “beep” device in a
public space. Visually impaired people would prefer to use an earpiece instead of using a
speaker, although they also complained that it would be very easy for them to lose or forget to
bring the earpiece with them.
4. Many visually impaired people are 55 plus, so it is common that they also suffer from hearing
problems. An audio based device may not be useful for the aging community.
A vibration based notification system works better in this case:
1. Vibration is a peripheral interaction which is less likely to bother others.
2. A vibration based notification system is distinctive enough for users to detect, even for the
elderly.
3. A vibration based notification system does not require additional devices such as an
earpiece, which simplifies usability.
7.8. Guidelines of design proposals
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7.8.1. Stimulation was applied to usability tests:
It was not possible given the time for the research for the author to build up an actually working
RFID device or RFID system because limited resources and abilities. A series of simulation was
applied to usability tests which could mimic the real RFID device, RFID system and Interactions
I want to explore.
RFID reader and tags
The RFID reader will be simulated by a piece of rectangular foam with a vibrator integrated
inside. The vibrator was controlled by a remote controller to provide a controllable vibration to
achieve the usability. The purpose of this RFID reader was reading RFID tags placed on the
surface of the target that you would need to find. The simulated RFID reader will be connected
to a wireless remote control, which enable it not obstruct the user during the experiment. A
researcher will hold the remote control and guide the participant throughout the duration of the
experiment. The RFID tags are real products collected from market.
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Figure 14. Simulated functional prototype
Instructions:
Participants were required to speak the keyword such as “my telephone” to identify the target
they would like to get access to. For detecting the target, participants should stand still, holding
and turning the smart phone 360 degrees to scan all passive RFID tags inside of room. They
would hear an optional clear buzz sound: “beep” or a vibration from the smart phone when the
receiver gets in the range of specific RFID tags located on the target.
7.8.2. Passive RFID tags
For identifying different objects in a space, there must be different passive RFID tags pasted on
selected objects. There is almost no complains about the complexity regarding to paste passive
RFID tags on objects during interviews. They strongly agree that it is a little bit complex to settle
down the device at first by a visually impaired persons, but it is very easy for a sighted persons.
After settling down, it is very easy to use by a visually impaired persons and requires nearly “0”
maintenances about the system. Visually impaired persons explained that there are nurses or
employees from different associations for the blind and visually impaired (i.e. CABVI) come into
their home regularly (usually every weeks) who will willing to help. Meanwhile, their children or
other family members might help as well. What’s more, there are increasing numbers of
manufactures are using passive RFID tags to replace traditional barcodes which might also be
utilized by visually impaired persons, for example, a passive RFID tags might contain
instructions about the product which is extremely help for visually impaired users.
7.8.3. Smart phone ideas
A smart phone has many possible interaction which can support the new design and decrease
the complexity of the system. Meanwhile, studies above show that many visually impaired
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persons used to use smart phones and integrated talking features, audio notification and
vibration to deal with everyday challenges. Others do not have a smart phone currently have
high motivation to buy one or at least learning operations. An idea of defining a new interactions
based on using exist smart phone and integrated hardware was prototypes made by the author
and verified and reviewed by many visually impaired individuals. They like it because: 1. they
are familiar with smart phones; 2. they used it everyday 3. save money, no need to buy a totally
new device; 4. easy to learn 5. compact enough to carry. 6. small enough to hold on hand
7.8.4. Phone cover ideas for RFID readers
The draft version of design propels for figuring out the internal navigation problem for visually
impaired persons show great complexities. This prototype was not seen a satisfactory by
Visually Impaired persons. Meanwhile, people’s hand and fingers are very sensitive and it is a
human nature that using their hand to explore an item if their eyesight was blocked. For design
inspiration, the final designs should as close as people’s hand to capture the acuity and human
nature. For a passive RFID system, there must be a RFID reader to power and support all
passive RFID tags. The size of the RFID reader is relatively small which as small as a smart
phone. During the co-creations session with visually impaired persons, an idea was proposed
by the author and widely recognized by many visually impaired users: design a phone cover
which has an integrated RFID reader inside for smart phones. The RFID reader will connected
with the smart phone to be powered. After testing the prototype, certain suggestions applied for
the product: 1. it will be good if there is a battery inside of the phone cover which might act as a
power band for smart phones; 2. Existing RFID readers is totally flat, which limits the scanning
angel of the reader (the reader can only scan 60 degree in vertical at one time). A larger
scanning areas can be reached (scanning 180 degree in vertical at one time) if the reader can
be made with some curvatures. 3. Easier to carry if there is any design can bind user’s hand
and the smart phone together (i.e. bind, rope, buttons)
44
7.8.5. Frequency of the frequency of vibration
The frequency of vibration will constantly change based on the distance between the
smartphone and the target RFID tag. The closer distance between the smart phone and target
RFID tag, the higher frequency of vibration will be reached. It is crucial to define the frequency
vibration for each stage of usage. The author figure out a chart to clarify the confidence of users
to find the target and frequency of vibration.
Figure 15. Relationship between confidence to find the target and frequency of vibration
According to the Figure 10. For a visually impaired person, the longest tolerance time of
vibration pause without losing confidence is 3 second per pause (20 vibration per minute), the
initial vibration pause should be longer than that. Otherwise, visually impaired persons will have
less confidence to finish the internal navigation task through interval navigation because visually
impaired persons need constant notification to notify them the working status of the system and
45
more than 3 seconds per vibration could confuse their cognition and perception. The frequency
of vibration will increase once visually impaired persons approaching the target and constantly
vibrating without pause if they finally have a physical contact with the target. (Figure 11)
Figure 16. Relationship between frequency of vibration and distance between users and the target.
In the figure above, the distance between the user and the target is 300 cm, the distance can vary
from the maximum to minimum reading range of the RFID reader (usually, the reading range start
from 0cm to 666.6667 cm (20 feet) or even longer (powerful RFID reader with antenna)).
7.9. Potential human factors to support interactions
7.9.1. Human senses
Talking features are widely used for products or services designed for visually impaired persons. It
show great efficiency to help visually impaired persons deal with everyday challenges. But the
accuracy can be a potential problem for an audible system: 1. Different people will have different
speaking methods which require fault-tolerant features or a huge database with different personas or
46
scenarios. Complicity will be added into the system, and in the meantime, solid technical support are
required to ensure the accuracy of the talking features. 2. Some vague audio commands might even
cause misunderstandings.
Touch is another major sense utilized by visually impaired persons to sense their surroundings. They
used to measure the environment and avoid collision by white cane. They used to understand the
appearance and features of a product by their hand. Today, braille are widely recognized as one of
the most successful methods to help visually impaired persons understanding their surroundings.
Braille utilized active touch features of a visually impaired persons (the difference between active
touch and passive touch features will be discussed later) to help them perceive meanings of
paragraphs. Meanwhile, touch can do more than we think: for example, the safety feeling.
7.9.2. Difference between congenitally blind individuals and late blind individuals:
Some studies showing lower performance in sensing objects by congenitally blind persons (Heller,
1989a; Lederman et al., 1990). Kennedy (2006) has claimed that touch is suitable for
comprehending linear perspective pictures. Perspective is a sort of illusory distortion that is found in
vision (Morton Heller and Soledad Ballesteros ,2012). When we enjoy the beautiful ocean in the
distance, the skyline shows up, which looks like the sky and ocean mixed together. Of course they
don’t. Kennedy concluded that since perspective involves direction, it should be reachable to
congenitally blind persons and the sense of touch (Heller et al., 2009; Heller & Kennedy, 1990).
7.9.3. Inspirations from Braille:
The Braille system was invented because of difficulties with embossed print. Print must be much
larger than convex dots based Braille to achieve the same understanding level. Less than 10 percent
of visually impaired persons can read Braille and only 10 percent blind children are learning Braille
(National Federation of the Blind, 2009). In the meantime, A study shows that most blind people do
not read Braille because of the low reading speed: According to Foulke (1982) the average Braille
reading rate is about 104 words per minute for experienced adults, which is much lower than most
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sighted individuals. Visual impairment is much more common in the aging individuals which have
less possibilities to learn Braille. Tactile acuity and accuracy declines with age and other factors.
(Stevens et al., 1996). But the tactile patterns are far more distinctive for visually impaired persons to
figure out.
7.9.4. The idea of using active touch to measure objects and forms.
Visually impaired persons used to use their fingers or hands to actively understand an object or a
space by physical contacts, such as reading Braille. All 3D patterns or information were stay there
and waiting for visually impaired persons to review. Although there is a great efficiency of displaying
information for visually impaired persons by active touch, the potential illusion and accuracy problem
can still cause problems.
7.9.5. Problems of active touch:
Studies shows that active touch might cause illusions which do harm to comprehensions. Illusions
occur in both touch and visually impaired persons. For example, the Mueller-Lyer illusion (figure 1)
has been found in congenital blind individuals (Heller et al., 2005). The study shows that
explanations of the illusion in size and constancy scaling may not be enough.
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Figure 17: This figure shows the Mueller-Lyer stimuli Figure 18: It illustrates two forms of the horizontal
(adapted from Heller et al., 2005, Perception, 34, -vertical illusion. The inverted T shape is above, and
1475-1500, Pion Press, Ltd.). the illusion with a curve appears below. Note that in
I both instances, the horizontal extent is equal to the
I vertical. (adapted from Heller et al., 2005, Perception, i
i 34, 1475-1500, Pion Press, Ltd.).
The horizontal-vertical illusion (Figure 2) also occurs in congenital blind groups with touching sense,
same as sighted persons. Heller et al. (2013) examined the horizontal-vertical curvature illusion with
raised-lines, as well as solid objects. The illusion was found with both types of stimuli, indicating that
the haptic illusion is not the result of the use of line drawings. In addition, the illusion was stronger
when the curved stimuli were frontally placed, as on a computer screen or wall. These results
indicate that the horizontal-curvature illusion is not entirely dependent upon radial-tangential
scanning, and can occur in their absence. Radial scanning is not possible with frontal placement.
The illusions of active touch features really lower the efficiency and accuracy for visually impaired
persons to understand the meaning, which determine that the active touch features might not be an
ideal solution for the navigation based interactions.
7.9.6. The idea of using passive touch to measure objects and forms.
The idea of using passive touch is to use active devices which can generate active actions and
49
interact with people. The device will allow visually impaired individuals to passively receiving
notifications from devices. The passive touch can be something simple as vibration, or something
complex as transformation. The passive touch methods avoid the illusion of active touch which will
bring more efficiency and accuracy for transforming information.
8. Guidelines for future designs regarding internal navigations
for visually impaired people.
8.1. General Guidelines:
* It is very common for visually impaired people to live independently in their home until their nurse,
family members or other person’s visit.
* Designs must be tested and tweaked to verify the effectiveness and level of comfort.
* Passive RFID tags can be utilized to serve visually impaired people. More and more
manufactures are using passive RFID tags to replace traditional barcodes. There will be more
products carrying passive RFID tags coming in the future.
* A white cane can only help a visually impaired individual to detect objects on the ground.
* A white cane can only provide a vague detection of the location of the object. It cannot help
visually impaired people to have a sense of the object.
* A white cane can only provide a relatively inaccurate location of a target object and provide nothing
about the object; if it is not on the ground, it cannot be detected by the white cane.
* Sighted people can assist visually impaired people in setting up a device or system.
* It is better to design something wearable and should be as close as possible to the hand; it is
very common for a visually impaired person to use their hand to verify whether they grab the
right objects or entering the right space. It is also preferable if the design can be handled or
worn on the hand.
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* Avoid designs which rely on non-rechargeable batteries; it is too difficult for visually impaired
people to change batteries by themselves.
* A white cane is an essential tool for many visually impaired people. There may be a design
opportunity to incorporate the white cane semantic.
* It is preferred to use existing hardware to interact with visually impaired people to lower the total
cost of the system
* Nearly 90% of visually impaired people live in low-income settings – it is critical to control the life-
cycle cost of products designed for this community.
* Visually impaired people also consider the appearance of the device. If there is a conflict between
function and appearance, function should take priority.
* A white cane still works well to detect obstacles and notify others of its user’s blindness. Visually
impaired people prefer to continue using white canes.
* It is very common for visually impaired people to live independently in their home until their nurse,
family members or other persons visit.
* Visually impaired people often experience difficulties with internal navigation, especially when
entering an unfamiliar indoor space. They must memorize many items in a familiar space,
which is an extremely tedious and time consuming task and prone to errors.
* Visually impaired people prefer to use their white canes for sensing their surroundings and
achieving safety and psychological confidence, even in a space they are very familiar with.
They often have a heightened sensitivity to safety issues (i.e. collision, falling down and
potential injuries).
* Visually impaired people do not like change; they prefer to use something within their expertise.
* Visually impaired people are more likely to use a device they are familiar with or have used
frequently instead of a new secondary device.
* Visually impaired people have a strong desire to live independently.
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8.2. General guidelines for Interactions:
* The majority of visually impaired people are less motivated to interact with more than two devices
at the same time, including their white canes.
* Non-verbal tactile interface and interaction may not be applied to the majority of visually impaired
persons.
* Visually impaired people require constant operational status notification of a device due to their
loss of eyesight.
* Voice commands or other screen-reading features integrated in the smart phone are extremely
helpful for many visually impaired users.
* Audio solutions may be annoying, both to users and people nearby. This may significantly increase
anxiety and discomfort, potentially decreasing the user’s willingness to use the associated product
or service.
* It is better to use existing hardware to interact with visually impaired people to lower the total cost
of the system.
* Smart phones may be good platforms for generating future products, systems or interactions. A
large proportion of visually impaired people are smart phone users and those who aren’t show a
strong desire to learn the technology.
* More than 82% of all blind people are 50 years of age or older (McGavin 1999); it may be
beneficial to minimize the memory burden to improve the usability and feasibility.
* Physical contact increases confidence for visually impaired people.
* Vibration is distinctive enough for notification purposes.
* A white cane is an essential tool for many visually impaired people. There may be some
possibility to design something related to the white cane.
* A secondary device can be very easy to lose and forget. Charging for the battery can be
another risk.
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* Audio and vibration can be combined to enhance the performance of devices, systems or
interactions.
* An RFID system can easily handle multiple requests (one of the trainers at CABVI was a
former electrical engineer before he went blind).
* A passive RFID tag may work more friendly than an active RFID tag because it doesn't require
batteries.
* Be caution, for elderly visually impaired individuals, hearing loss may also occur in the same time,
audio solutions might not work well for them.
* Hearing and touch are two major senses which have proven more effective for communicating
information to visually impaired people.
* Audio based solutions can transmit much more information than touch based solutions. But touch
based solutions can be more detective than audio based solutions and perform better against
distractions
* Active touch requires control over the touch which can provide more details about objects. Passive
touch does not require anything which can provide less information about objects, but it is far more
distinctive, ideal for notification purposes.
* Visually impaired people often prefer using their existing devices because it is very hard for
many aging individuals to learn how to operate new devices with brand new technologies.
* Vibration and associated audio based notification can help the visually impaired to locate and
navigate to a position.
* Vibration and passive RFID systems perform well in improving internal navigation for the visually
impaired.
9. Conclusion:
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Visually impaired people have high demands for independent mobility in both outdoor and indoor
navigation. Existing technologies and solutions facilitate outdoor mobility for visually impaired
people, but less design and engineering emphasis is placed on solutions which address the issue of
internal navigation for this small community. Existing products and services which address internal
navigation focus mainly on detecting and avoiding obstacles; seldom are they useful for finding
specific items or spaces.
The author collaborated with the Cincinnati Association for The Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI)
to discover and analyze the problems mentioned above. Solid secondary research has been
conducted prior to this study for understanding human demands, current solutions and their
restrictions. Several interviews, tests and co-creations have been done to verify the effectiveness of
draft prototypes and interaction preferences of visually impaired people and specialists. These
include: test of human senses, preferences for interactions, preferences for wearable / non-wearable
devices and tests between an audio based notification system and a vibration based notification
system.
There are two main factors involved regarding internal navigation for the visually impaired: 1.
determining orientation and distance; 2. identifying objects. Following secondary research and co-
creation with visual impairment specialists, engineers at CABVI and visually impaired individuals, the
concept of using interval vibration to determine orientation and distance was proposed, and a
system utilizing an integrated voice command function in a smart phone and a passive RFID system
was proposed to address the problem of identifying objects. A passive RFID system will help users
identify different objects easily and quickly. Interval vibration can be an effective and distinctive
interaction to convey navigation information (including orientation and distance) for visually impaired
users. A series of passive RFID tags can be attached to the surface of virtually any object or space
that a visually impaired user may want to reach. After defining the specific items through voice
command software, the user will constantly be notified by interval vibration. The vibration frequency
54
can vary based on the distance between the target object and the user. The shorter the distance, the
higher the vibration frequency will become.
A series of studies conducted in this thesis also provide strong support for touch based interactions.
The typical human being possesses 5 senses: touch, hearing, taste, smell and sight. Given that the
average visually impaired person is also likely to be over 50 years of age (More than 82% of all blind
people are 50 years of age or older (McGavin 1999), they may also suffer from some form of hearing
loss as well. It is only logical that the proposed solution should draw on one or more of the remaining
senses. Consequently, hearing and touch were the two major senses finally selected for further
exploration by the author and specialists from CABVI. This design direction is also in alignment with
methods used in existing products and services designed for the visually impaired (i.e. talking
features, audio notification, vibration). An audio based interaction may have many potential problems
for visually impaired users – for example, an audio based system could become a noise generator,
creating a nuisance to the actual user and potentially bothering family members or other individuals
nearby. While an audio system may be better suited for communication rather than notification
purposes, vibration was shown to be quite effective during the research.
Meanwhile, technology advances in the smart phone industry are bringing powerful computing ability
and other new interaction methods through integrated hardware. Many visually impaired people are
using their smart phone’s integrated voice command or VoiceOver functions to assist them in
addressing everyday challenges. They seem less averse to using this feature which is integrated
into the smart device they are already using, so it would be advisable to preserve this feature in
future design proposals. Even those who do not currently have a smart device show a strong interest
in the technology and a desire to either purchase or trial such a device.
55
A case study was collected in this thesis regarding a specific design research method referred to as
“co-creation”. Additionally, the “Bring and Have a Try” method based on participatory design
principals was utilized during interactions between the author and visually impaired participants due
to the difficulties encountered with visual and verbal communications. The method of “co-creation”
afforded the author a deeper understanding of the special needs and preferences of the visually
impaired community. Feedback was collected for improving design proposals. The method of “Bring
and Have a Try” worked well in accurately facilitating communication between participants and the
author. The tactile interaction with tangible objects served to promote a better understanding and
faster comprehension of the proposed design solutions.
A set of guidelines was created to assist other designers or researchers in developing their own
internal navigation related products, systems or interactions, including general guidelines and
specific guidelines for interactions. A scenario was shown in chart 5.8.5. to illustrate the working
process of the final design proposal.
Visually impaired people need to memorize floor plans and specific arrangements of objects within a
space in order to solve their particular internal navigation problem. All specialists and visually
impaired individuals agree that utilizing linear interval vibration could significantly shorten and
simplify the process of internal navigation and decrease the memory burden. Less time is spent on
verifying the target objects or spaces due to the increased accuracy of the RFID system.
Therefore, I concluded here that internal navigation can be optimized by using smart phone based
interactions and navigation system. The interactions include both voice commands and linear
interval vibration. The navigation system is comprised of a passive RFID system and a smart phone.
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Figure 19. Task 2.1 Navigation through vibration system
Figure 14 shows that visually impaired people possess the capability to navigate a space by
following linear interval vibration notifications. They also have the ability to communicate with their
smart phones through voice command functions. Aside from the initial setup of the passive RFID
system (which can be accomplished by a nurse, employee of an association for the visually
impaired, family member or any other sighted individual), the system requires very little maintenance
making it very user friendly. Overall, the solution represents a dramatic improvement in the internal
navigation experience for the visually impaired.
57
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Pui-Yu, E. L. (n.d.). Centre for the visually impaired.
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Appendix A
Potential interaction methods and carriers for internal navigation
1. GPS and other wireless technologies
GPS (Global Positioning System) and associated navigation applications on a smart device offers a
great support for the outdoor mobility of visually impaired people, but is ineffective inside buildings.
Most of Existing technologies regarding indoor navigation depend on relative positioning using
wireless technologies (i.e. wifi, bluetooth,NFC, GSM, infrared ray, radar wave, mobile phones’
signal, GPS) and sensors such as digital tags, active badges, accelerometers, temperature sensors,
photodiodes, and radio beacons. The challenge is obvious considering the complexity, usability,
feasibility and cost of existing systems. For a typical indoor space, there might be hundreds or even
thousands of objects depend on the purpose of the space (i.e. business: grocery store, private: a
living room) which added too much work-loads to bluetooth or wifi based system: if there are more
than 20 individual items in the space, Bluetooth and wifi system cannot handle it. A system failure or
slow response could be predicted. Meanwhile, a functional indoor navigation system requires more
than one individuals devices. An exponential growth of cost might occur due to the relative high
costs of bluetooth or wifi hardware.
2. Braille
Braille is widely used in education, way-finding and other areas associated with visually impaired
persons. But the truth is that less than 10 percent of visually impaired persons can read Braille and
only 10 percent blind children are learning Braille(National Federation of the Blind, 2009), which limit
the usage of it. In fact, the researcher found that many visually impaired persons can only detect
simple tactile surface, such as dots, lines etc. Meanwhile, a tactile screen still under development
and ridiculously expensive today, which is not an ideal solution for the indoor navigation. The Braille
system was invented because of difficulties with embossed print. Print must be much larger than
convex dots based Braille to achieve the same understanding level. Less than 10 percent of visually
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impaired persons can read Braille and only 10 percent blind children are learning Braille (National
Federation of the Blind, 2009). In the meantime. A study shows that most blind people do not read
Braille because of the low reading speed: According to Foulke (1982) the average Braille reading
rate is about 104 words per minute for experienced adults, which is much lower than most sighted
individuals. Visual impairment is much more common in the aging individuals which have less
possibilities to learn Braille. Tactile acuity and accuracy declines with age and other factors.
(Stevens et al., 1996). But the tactile patterns are far more distinctive for visually impaired persons to
figure out.
3. Wearable devices with multiple sensors
Figure 1. Components of Eyeronman
A wearable device with distance detected sensors are far more expensive and high demanding for
training based on the feedbacks of initial users. A typical wearable device for visually impaired
persons is Eyeronman (figure 1), a wearable vest which using vibration to notify and alert obstacles
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for visually impaired persons by collecting data from multiple ultra sound sensors. Meanwhile,
charging and cleaning issues could also lower the usability and comfortableness of a wearable
device.
4. White canes
White canes was claimed to be invented by James Biggs of Bristol in 1921, it is still one of the most
reliable and effective tool to help visually impaired people to sense their surroundings which was
agreed by all most all interviewees involved in the project, they preferred to hold white cane on hand
when entering into an unfamiliar space to avoid risks.
5. A smart phone
Currently, increasing visually impaired individuals are using smart phones in repeating their
everyday challenges. While, other visually impaired persons have pretty high motivations to buy one
or at least try to learn to operate a smart phone. A smart phone is a versatile platform which can
install lots of APPs for multiple purposes. Currently, visually impaired users are using google maps
or apple maps to figure out outdoor navigations. And using the voice assistant to figure out the
operation problem. A smart phone is now acting as an essential tools for their everyday life. They
used to carry it everyday as sighted people. So a smart phone might be a great carrier for the future
design proposals.
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APPENDIX B
Limitations of existing products or solutions for navigation
1. White canes
A white cane is a great tool to ensure safety and sense surroundings, but may not be a great tool to
sense orientations and distances for specific items. While physical contact has proved for years it’s
effectiveness of notification for visually impaired people. White canes claimed to be invented by
James Biggs of Bristol in 1921, it is still one of the most reliable and effective tool to help visually
impaired people to sense their surroundings based on physical contacts with obstacles, which was
agreed by the majority of my interviewees involved in the project. They preferred to hold white cane
on hand when entering into an unfamiliar space to avoid risks.
1.1. Although a white cane is great for visually impaired persons to navigate and alert them in
both outdoor and indoor space, several limitations still apply to it:
1. A white cane can only help a visually impaired individual to detect objects on the ground.
2. A white cane can only provide a vague detection of the location of the object. It cannot help
visually impaired persons to have a sense of what is the object.
3. A white cane can only provide a relatively inaccurate location of a target object and provide
nothing the object if it is not on the ground which cannot be detected by a white cane.
2. Guide dogs
Guide dogs are reliable in most cases, but still pose problems, for example, feeding, cleaning,
different recognition for objects between human and dog, illness, emotion, death, injury and even
attacks. They are great companion and navigator for visually impaired to figure out outdoor locations
(navigations), while less a help in indoor navigation. Meanwhile, a guide dog can be sensitive for
individuals who did not like dogs. Hygiene problem may also occur on a guide dog. What’s more,
different lifespans could also bring significant psychological problems such as depression.
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3. The majority interactions between devices and visually impaired persons are using verbal
cues or the combination of multiple senses
Most existing interactions between devices and visually impaired people are verbal cues or the
combination of multiple senses (i.e. hearing, touching, smelling, tasting) since they cannot physically
see a display.
Examples concern the use of verbal output as the primary (and often, only) source of transmitting
information to the user (Strothotte T et al. 1996) (Golledge RG et al. 1998), which showed that the
verbal output is not an efficient way of conveying information for visually impaired people. Franklin
(Franklin N, 1995) indicated the difficulties of using common speech to demonstrate spatial relations,
Pitt and Edwards (Pitt IJ, Edwards ADN, 1996) indicate how verbal interfaces are slow to use and
more demanding on memory than vision or touch, and Strothotte et al. (Strothotte et al. 1995)
demonstrate how headphones used to transmit audio messages may mask/distort sounds in the
environment which are necessary for avoiding hazards. Ross and Blasch (Ross DA, Blasch BB,
2000) found that the best interface combined tactile cues using a tapping interface with improved
speech output.
4. Non-verbal tactile interface and interaction may not be applied to the majority of visually
impaired persons
While, there are some new non-verbal tactile interface and interaction (i.e. braille display) for filling
the gap of recognition, the fact is that fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million legally blind persons in
the United States of America have the ability to read Braille, and only 10 percent of blind children are
learning it, according to a report to be released by the National Federation of the Blind (National
Federation of the Blind, 2009).
5. A GPS or Navigation App
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A GPS or Navigation App (i.e. google map, apple map) is very popular in visually impaired
communities. It is very useful for helping visually impaired persons to be navigated in a outdoor
space, while it can do nothing in an indoor space.
6. Mobility assistant
It is very common for visually impaired persons have one or more mobility assistant for assisting
them in navigation. Mobility assistants are usually nurses, family members or volunteers. It is a very
time consuming work but it is effective. The problem is that a visually impaired person’s mobility will
be limited and based on their assistant’s time schedule, which is not an ideal way to enhance their
ability in independent living. Meanwhile, a visually impaired persons will have less privacy during the
assistantship. Last but not least, the researcher found in the interview: many interviewees (visually
impaired individuals) are living by themselves in the majority of time.
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Appendix C
Case study for Storm Clinical Decision Support Toolkit Project Overview
Co-creation session along with integrated design toolkits can become a bridge to connect
both researchers and participants to ensure the engagement from both sides. It shows
incredibly capacity in this case study to help researchers understand decision making,
gather insights, provide ideas and concepts, define information hierarchy, fill in the missing
functions or features in design, figure out errors, etc. This co-creation session is innovative
for several reasons. First, the activities designed for co-creation will help non-design
background participants engaged in design research. Second, the activities designed for
co-creation will also help researchers to gather as much information as possible. In
addition, it will be a great tool to minimize the knowledge and communication gap between
game organizers and game participants.
Background
There are an estimated 100,000 individuals with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in the United
States. Children with SCD are at-risk for serious medical complications including acute
chest syndrome, stroke, bone damage, and early death from overwhelming sepsis,
pulmonary or cardiac complications. Adults are also at risk of medical complications and
death, and face disparities such as lack of access to care and knowledgeable medical
providers. Compelling evidence (Smeltzer et al., 2013) shows that one
chemotherapeutic treatment, hydroxyurea (HU), significantly reduces the frequency of
pain, hospitalizations, transfusions, serious medical complications (i.e. acute chest
syndrome) and improves neurocognitive functioning and quality of life in children with
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SCD. Yet studies have shown that HU is underutilized in the pediatric and adult
population. (Brandow, Jirovec, and Panepinto, 2010)
Description
Develop innovative toolkit will translate the “National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute”
(NHLBI) SCD guidelines, including hydroxyurea, into clinical practice. Providers will have
the educational tools to discuss HU and SCD complication management with patients.
This is a critical first step towards the long-term goal of optimizing evidence-based care
and the use of HU in the SCD population. This intervention could potentially have a
substantial impact on improving health outcomes and decreasing health care costs in
pediatric and adult SCD.
Objectives
The overall goal of this project is to design an innovative web-based toolkit for
healthcare providers that will provide education about the NHLBI evidence-based
guidelines for the management of sickle cell disease, including HU (hydroxyurea). To
accomplish this goal, we will have co-creation session.
Specific Aim 1: Thru approximately 18-20 healthcare provider interviews, identify how
providers want to receive education about the NHLBI guidelines and
hydroxyurea. Sponsor will help recruit and assist scheduling interviewees.
Specific Aim 2: Thru approximately 6 professional interviews, and a co-creation session
with the STORM regional learning collaborative to identify how a toolkit that provides
education about how guidelines for SCD can be best integrated into a primary care
provider practice. Sponsor will help recruit and assist scheduling interviewees.
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Specific Aim 3: Through group discussion, the team need to define activities and tools
which can be used into co-creation session. Both of them should response to the 5 W
criteria: when, what, where, who and how.
First and second co-creation session
Currently, tools and activities designed for physicians, medical providers and patients
are not powerful enough to: let physicians, medical providers communicate and convince
patients; let physicians and medical providers to find useful information incisively;
provide a decent way of continuing SCD & Hydroexera education for both physicians,
medical providers and patients. The whole team also interviewed 5 pediatricians and
primary care, 15 specialist and 1 national expert, 21 interviews in total. The team also
came up with the first version of co-creation sessions: physical interaction through face-
to-face interview and internet based interaction through phone interview. The figure
(Figure 1) below shows the physical interaction and internet based interaction of the
activity. During the data analysis, the data was gathered, analyzed and placed into three
categories: Face-to-Face Communication, Physical Materials, and Digital Media.
Although they are relatively similar, Face-to-Face Communication (37.6%) is most
preferred by provider according to the data, followed by Digital Media (34%) and
Physical Materials (28.4%) (Figure 2 shows the detailed data).
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Figure 1
Figure 2
By gathering the insights from the first and second round of co-creation session, the
team had already gather much insights from different group of persons with different
expertise and background: medical background OR design and management
background with multiple expertise. The result shows that the co-creation session can be
a great tool to communicate with participants with multiple focuses or coming from
different world (also proved by other journal articles (Ramaswamy, 2009) (Lazarus,
Krishna, and Dhaka, 2014)). The team gathered plenty of insights and categorized them
into a sentence: providers learning preference around hydroxyurea and the NJLBI
guidelines. These definitions synthesized from first and second co-creation sessions are
extremely useful to help the team to deeply understand clients and their potential
problems and opportunities. Meanwhile, the small group of first and second round of co-
creation sessions can be a great foundation of the final co-creation session with larger
group to construct structure and insights for research and activities, or figuring out the
bugs and errors inside of the activities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness.
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The third round of co-creation session
In the third co-creation, the team came up with lots of ideas to collect data and get rid of
as much drawbacks as possible in the first and second round of co-creation sessions.
There are four groups during the co-creation session, each team members was
assigned to lead a group: Group1: Doctors; Group2: Educators; Group3: Educators;
Group4: Patients. The first and most important activity is the Toolkit shopping at the
Hydroxyurea Depot (a stimulated Home Depot), which includes Shopping, Discussion
and Report. After that, coming up with the second co-creation Activity: Provider and
Patient Scenarios Exercise.
Toolkit shopping at the Hydroxyurea Depot:
Based on the previous research and co-creation session: the team created some
communication tools as example: all tools are categorized into 5 categories: web-based
tools, paper-based tools, electronic-based tools, technical-based tools, personalized-
based tools. Then cut it as small physical cards and put them into related envelopes
(envelopes has the pertinent logo and title on the surface). The team hanged all the
envelope and other associated logo, header on the wall to prepare the upcoming
activities (figure 3)
1. Tool belt
Each participants would have one tool belt, there are five blank space on the belt which
need be fitted by tool cards from the most important to the least important in their own
opinions. In this section, since everybody had to choose at least five tools to fill in the
blank and share the reason why they select them as well as the ranking issue, the storm
team can get rid of one embarrassing moment—somebody might over-talking or
dominating the conversion. Everybody had to speak up their own voice which can give
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others inspirations and provide valuable information for the whole storm team. By
observation, the storm team also found that even the shyest person started share their
own opinions of tools they picked. Meanwhile, teammates within the discussion group
were also inspired by each other and start adjusting their own tool belt by adding and
dropping tools from it. Some group members even come with some brand new tools we
never know it before, they starting making their own favorite tools.
2. Toolbox
After group discussion, each group should concluded five tools they are all agreed and
put them into the toolbox also based on the importance of the specific tool. Participants
need to share their well designed toolbox and the reason of selecting those tools as well
as the raking information with the other groups by one or two team members. By doing
so, there is a great chance to break the boundary of each groups and talk the tools in a
big group to help giving inspirations to others.
Figure 3
Scenario simulation (figure 4)
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The storm team came up with 6 different scenarios in total, including 3 specific scenarios
for patients group and 3 scenarios for providers and physicians groups. Patients only
need to focus on 3 specific scenarios, meanwhile, medical providers and physicians
groups need to rotate within the 3 scenarios designed for them to make sure that every
groups can interact with all 3 scenarios. Each scenarios are separated into three
sections: obstacles, tools and goals. Participants need to write down the potential
obstacles they might face, tools they want to use and which goals they want to reach.
The purpose of those scenarios are encouraging providers and physicians actually
managing their patient and prescribing hydroxyurea by using the tools they picked from
toolbox.
Figure 4
By doing such activities within the co-creation session, it is obvious that the co-creation
session is a great tool to gather insights from participants since the storm team collected
tons of raw data within 1 hour, which is an amazing speed. Meanwhile, by applying the
step up inter-related activities, participants can really going deeper to the co-creation
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session, correcting errors, getting inspirations and even coming up more potential
solutions.
Conclusion
The co-creation sessions are innovative for several reasons:
1. Based on the case study for the research part of the storm project, it is obvious that
co-creation session did a great job to help researchers collecting useful data
(feedbacks, insights etc.).
2. Co-creation session is also a useful tool to improve participants’ engagement and
communication between interviewers and interviewees.
3. Co-creation session is time efficient: teams could gather abundant information from
participants in less than an hour (Teams need to spend more time on preparing the
co-creation activities, but they are still time efficient compared to other traditional
research methods).
Meanwhile, applying escalating co-creation activities which contains several levels of
minor co-creation sessions into research would be awesome for research teams to
organize a successful co-creation session:
1. The escalating co-creation session could help research teams figure out the
important missing parts from designed activities.
2. The escalating co-creation session could increase the total number of person who
participated in the co-creation activity, which could increase the possibility of
gathering more thoughts and feedbacks from participants to improve the final design.
3. Each person might have different thoughts and attitudes towards the same thing, it is
a great opportunity to help researchers think out of box.What’s more, by adding
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some scenarios would help participants better understand both advantages and
disadvantages of their decisions and force them to rethink and analyze the
inappropriate part of their previous conclusions or choices. Scenario is also a great
tool to let people think aloud for some brand new solutions which has been proved in
the storm project.
A useful tip which came from the storm team’s conclusion from the project is that the co-
creation session should start from individual activity to group activity, which could help
people to warm up before the crucial group discussion: An interesting but useful
phenomenon the storm team found from the co-creation research part is that the co-
creation activities is extremely helpful for shy people to get rid of the nervous feeling and
discussing with their temporary teammates (they are unfamiliar with each others) in a
comfortable setting. Last but not least, teams should make sure that their activities are
enjoyable and easy to understand by participants, otherwise, there might be some big
fatal factors happened in co-creation when teams interact with their participants.
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Appendix D
Preferences for potential solutions through existing wearable device
1. Vest
Vest was considered by a few visually impaired persons. Others think that it is uncomfortable to
wear a vest inside of clothing and too weird to wear outside of clothing. They also concerned
about the heat issue in hot summer day if they had to wear a vest on their body.
Meanwhile, visually impaired persons also worry about the duration of the vest after sweating
and washing. The limited styles and colors could be another concerns. Meanwhile, they have to
prepare at least 2 sets of vests to make sure at least one set of clothing can be used for
washing or seasonal purposes.
2. Wristband
Wristband was considered as a good solution by many visually impaired persons. They do like
the compact size of the wristband but worried about the lost and found issues. “No, this is not
the right one, I will never remember to wear it”, said by one of my interviewee. They also worried
about the potential charging problems. Also, there are potential problems with this iteration after
communicating with visually impaired persons: 1. the wristband is pretty small, it might too
difficult to a visually impaired person to find 2. The battery life can be a huge minus 3. 49% of
people usually forget to wear their wristband and discarded it after several month (exceeding
(expiring) the fresh moment) 4.The compact size will limit the function of the wristband since
there is no enough space to install necessary electronic components. So the stickers is also out
of the discussion.
3. Ringlet
A ringlet integrated with indoor navigation reminder function was considered as an ideal solution
by visually impaired persons. They loved the compact size but worried about their memory: a
small object like a ringlet might be too easy to lost or forget. Meanwhile, there are plenty of
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engineering related problems: there is almost no space to install battery or other necessary
electronic components, heat dissipation can be a tragedy for this iteration. The ringlet iteration is
not a feasible solution in this case.
4. Necklace
A necklace integrated with indoor navigation reminder function was considered as an excellent
solution by visually impaired persons, especially female users. Form and fashion issues were
considered with high priority as much as functions. Female visually impaired persons preferred
more styles and colors of the necklace. But, male visually impaired persons almost have no
interests in this potential solutions. Meanwhile, there are some technical problems around the
necklace solutions, for example, there is really limited space for installing a powerful battery or
other necessary electronic components, heat dissipation can be the other problem for this
iteration. Necklace might not be a good solution although many female visually impaired
persons like it a lot.
5. Google glass
Google glass has been introduced overtime, but discussion around google glass never stopped.
Most visually impaired persons considered a google glass might be too weird to wear based on
multiple reasons. They can also use glass gestures (i.e. Tap the touchpad, Swipe forward and
back, Head Wake Up) to interact with google glass. But they changed their mind after further
understanding of google glass: First, the appearance is not good and it looks wired to wear in a
public spaces; Second, google glass were rejected in many places for safety or privacy
considerations; Third, the poor battery life and the hefty $1,500 price tag really lower down their
purchase willings; Forth, the potential weight and heating problem also bring some side effects
for visually impaired to interact with google glass in their daily life. Google glass is not a good
solution this time.
6. Belt
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Belt was considered as a good solutions by some male visually impaired persons and a few
female visually impaired persons. They were the group who use belt daily. Other visually
impaired persons who do not use a belt daily didn’t think a belt can be a solution for them
because they do not want to change their dressing habits. Meanwhile, the size and looking
might be a little bit wired after installing every necessary electronic components. Belt isn’t a
good one in this case.
7. Stickers
A sticker like a BandAid might be a potential solutions for solving the indoor navigation
problems. The sticker can be attached or pasted on skin or other surfaces. Some visually
impaired persons like this iteration because of it’s compact size, but they do care about the
comfortableness and the potential skin inflammation problem. Same as the necklace solution,
the size of a sticker is limited, so there might be no enough space to install powerful battery or
other crucial components. Also, there are potential problems with this iteration after
communicating with visually impaired persons: 1. the sticker is pretty small, even sighted
persons complained about the size, it might too difficult to a visually impaired person to find 2.
The perspiration might cause the sticker easily peel off from skin 3. Stickers are consumables
which required to be replaced by a new one after each usage, this could also be difficult for
visually impaired people to figure it out.
8. Wearable clothing
Wearable clothing are emerging recently. The market price for wearable clothing is significantly
higher than common clothing, for example, a wearable clothing company called ATHOS list their
product by units: for upper body, the price is $ 398, for lower body, the price is $ 348, the
additional sensing device cost $ 199. Besides price, visually impaired persons also worry about
the duration of the wearable clothing the limited styles and colors. Meanwhile, they have to
prepare at least 2 sets of wearable clothing to make sure at least one set of clothing can be
used for washing or seasonal purposes.
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Appendix E
Comparisons of Human Senses
1. Touch: Sense of touch can be a good way to fill the gap of internal navigation.
Touch can be defined as bringing a bodily part into contact with or perceiving through the tactile
sense based on definitions in dictionary. Currently, blind individuals rely on their sense of touch
for pattern perception, much as the rest of us depend on vision. Almost half of products
designed to visually impaired people on the market are based on sense of touch. Visually
impaired people can identity a certain objects by sensing it’s form. A well trained individual can
even read information by using their fingers to have a physical contact with braille. Surveys
suggested that a touch-based solution might be one of the best ways to reach the destination of
internal navigation; almost all visually impaired persons are satisfied with potential haptic
solutions because the rich experience and strength of their haptic abilities.
2. Listen: Sense of listen can be a good way to fill the gap of internal navigation.
Hearing can be defined as giving attention with the ear based on definitions in dictionary.
People can easily pay attention to a certain voice. Listening skills include listening
comprehension (understanding what we have heard), sound localization (being able to tell
where a sound is coming from), and auditory discrimination (identifying what a sound is). Since
listening skills will be a major source of information for a person who is blind or visually
impaired, many schools or associations keep training listening skills and providing listening
techniques for them. Visually impaired people used to use sense of hearing to communicate
with others or interact with their surroundings. The majority of existing products designed for
visually impaired people use their listening skills. Surveys suggested that an audio-based
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solution might also be one of the best ways to reach the destination of navigation: almost all
visually impaired persons are satisfied with potential audio solutions because of the rich
experience, advantages of their listening abilities and well trained listening skills and techniques.
3. Smell & Taste: Smell & Taste might be an interesting way to interact with people, but
isn’t a feasible solution.
Smell can be defined as a scent that is being emitted by something as a noun and perceiving or
detect the odor or scent of something as a verb based on definitions in dictionary. Taste is the
sensory impression of food or other substances on the tongue and is one of the five traditional
senses. Smell requires a certain time to transmit odors to the brain and become futile if there
are other distracting odors (i.e. ladies perfume, coffee), which has pretty low usability in
everyday life to show orientation and distance between users and target items or spaces (i.e.
help visually impaired persons to find a specific item or a specific space such as bathroom).
Taste requires the participation of tongue by eating certain food to determine the perception,
which has very low usability and feasibility and is almost impossible to be utilized by visually
impaired people everyday activities. Both conclusions are well agreed by visually impaired
people during interviews. They cannot imaging a smell or taste based device or service could
potentially help them towards internal navigation. The conclusion is that smell and taste are not
helpful for solving internal navigation problems for visually impaired persons.
4. Visual: Legally blind persons might actually see something, but not too much.
"Legal blindness" was defined and used by the United States government to make judgments of
eligibility for schooling, rehabilitation, low vision devices, vocational training, tax exemption
programs and disability benefits. It can be described as falling short of a statutory standard of
visual acuity: 20/200 vision in most of the United States, or 6/60 in Europe. While a legally blind
person can still read, cook and work through certain help from others or certain devices.
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4.1. Total blind persons can see almost nothing:
Total blindness is a community which lost the complete light perception and form perception
which can be described as “no light perception (NLP)”. Approximately 15% of individuals with
visual impairment are totally without sight (Duffy, 2013).
4.2. Light perception and light projection:
The majority (85% of individuals with visual impairment have some remaining sight (Duffy,
2013)) of visually impaired person still have the ability to distinguish the difference between light
and dark, daytime and nighttime, or the vague source and direction of light. They can sense the
presence or absence of light: some of my interviewees who are legally blind themselves can
distinguish the working status of a room light, the direction of a flashing or illustrating electric
torch in an overall darkened room. A visual based iteration was introduced to visually impaired
persons as a potential solution for detecting the distance and orientation between users and
objects: using flashing light to provide a vague perception of orientation and indicating distance
by changing the flashing frequency.
4.3. Interviews suggested that a visual solution might not be the best way to reach the
destination of internal navigation:
Interviews clearly show that (attachment, data here) almost all visually impaired persons are not
satisfied with potential visual solutions since the weakness and inaccuracy of their visual
abilities. Meanwhile, there are too much distractions and restrictions around them which made
the visual solution almost unreachable. What’s more, the annoying strong illustration might also
cause other problems between a sighted person and a visually impaired person. A visual
solution can be scored as low usability and feasibility.
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Appendix F
Potential interactions for interacting with visually impaired persons
1. Talking features for visually impaired users
Talking features are widely used for products or services designed for visually impaired persons. It
show great efficiency to help visually impaired persons deal with everyday challenges. But the
accuracy can be a potential problem for an audible system: 1. Different people will have different
speaking methods which require fault-tolerant features or a huge database with different personas or
scenarios. Complicity will be added into the system, and In the meantime, solid technical support are
required to ensure the accuracy of the talking features. 2. Some vague audio commands might even
cause misunderstandings. 3. Currently, all voice command assistant are designed by engineers and
think different as a real human, including many artificial intelligence voice command assistant, such
as Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana. It’s fairly hard to communicate in some cases. 4. An audible can be
annoying for both users and people who sitting nearby, which could result in an embarrassing
moment. Although there are many disadvantages there, a talking feature can still be the one of most
effective communication methods to convey information to visually impaired persons.
2. Touch for sensing surroundings or individual items for visually impaired users
Touch is another major sense utilized by visually impaired persons to sense their surroundings. They
used to measure the environment and avoid collision by white cane. They used to understand the
appearance and features of a product by their hand. Today, braille are widely recognized as one of
the most successful methods to help visually impaired persons understanding their surroundings.
Braille utilized active touch features of a visually impaired persons (the difference between active
touch and passive touch features will be discussed later) to help them perceive meanings of
paragraphs. Meanwhile, touch can do more than we think:
2.1. Problems of touch:
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Studies shows that illusions might happen for a visually impaired person sensing an object.
Difference between congenitally blind individuals and late blind individuals:
Some studies showing lower performance in sensing objects by congenitally blind people (Heller,
1989a; Lederman et al., 1990). Kennedy (2006) has claimed that touch is suitable for
comprehending linear perspective pictures. Perspective is a sort of illusory distortion that is found in
vision (Morton Heller and Soledad Ballesteros ,2012). When we enjoy the beautiful ocean in the
distance, the skyline shows up, which looks like the sky and ocean mixed together. Of course they
don’t. Kennedy concluded that since perspective involves direction, it should be reachable to
congenitally blind persons and the sense of touch (Heller et al., 2009; Heller & Kennedy, 1990).
2.2. The use of active touch to measure objects and forms.
An active touch require people to have voluntary control over the touch. If a person touches another
object by moving its body or any body parts to initiate the touch, then it is active touch. Visually
impaired persons used to use their fingers or hands to actively understand an object or a space by
physical contacts, such as reading Braille. All 3D patterns or information were stay there and waiting
for visually impaired persons to review. When we explore something, for example, a cell phone, the
active touch process is to hold the cell phone, feel its edges and other distinctive clues, rub our
fingers around both sides of the cell phone. This Haptic perception could potential help visually
impaired individuals recognize an object by touching they engaged during the touch process. They
experienced a purposeful touch. Although there is a great efficiency of displaying information for
visually impaired persons by active touch, the potential illusion and accuracy problem can still cause
problems.
2.3. The use of passive touch to measure objects and forms.
If a person is touched without control over the movement (for example, a mobile phone in the pocket
vibrate a person with a vibrator), then the touch is passive. It is easier to identify Braille patterns than
corresponding letters by touch, if stimulus size is the same. Loomis (1981) demonstrated the
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superior performance for Braille. He argued that low-pass spatial filtering by the skin is a problem for
letters, but Braille characters are far more distinctive. While, the low reading speed and only less
usage rate (Less than 10 percent of visually impaired persons can read Braille and only 10 percent
blind children are learning Braille (National Federation of the Blind, 2009)) really limits the use of
braille. The passive touch is not engaging and might lead us ignore some details and attributes on
an object, but it is far more distinctive and time efficient than the active touch.