title: A Virtual Environment for People Who Are Blind - A Usability Study.
abstract: For most people who are blind, exploring an unknown environment can be unpleasant, uncomfortable, and unsafe. Over the past years, the use of virtual reality as a learning and rehabilitation tool for people with disabilities has been on the rise. This research is based on the hypothesis that the supply of appropriate perceptual and conceptual information through compensatory sensorial channels may assist people who are blind with anticipatory exploration. In this research we developed and tested the BlindAid system, which allows the user to explore a virtual environment. The two main goals of the research were: (a) evaluation of different modalities (haptic and audio) and navigation tools, and (b) evaluation of spatial cognitive mapping employed by people who are blind. Our research included four participants who are totally blind. The preliminary findings confirm that the system enabled participants to develop comprehensive cognitive maps by exploring the virtual environment.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Human and Machine Haptics (The Touch Lab), Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA ; School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lahav
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Human and Machine Haptics (The Touch Lab), Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Schloerb
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Human and Machine Haptics (The Touch Lab), Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Human and Machine Haptics (The Touch Lab), Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
keywords: Blind; Cognitive-map; Haptic interaction; Virtual environment