title: Tactile-audio diagram for blind persons.
abstract: We propose a tactile-audio diagram, represented by a tactile pattern and linguistic information, as a new media for the blind. We have developed a vision substitution system which enables blind persons to read and write a diagram in the form of a tactile-audio diagram. The system consists of a personal computer, a tactile display with digitizer, an auditory information input/output device, and a command keyboard. The features of the system are: 1) the use of multimodality, i.e., tactile and auditory senses are used for perceiving spatial and linguistic information and 2) two-way communication, i.e., the system enables a blind person to read and write a diagram. This paper presents a tactile-audio diagram and an implemented prototype system based on this theory, along with a discussion and methods for enhanced representations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Minagawa
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ohnishi
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sugie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology