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3-D Virtual Maps For the Blind
Roland Piquepaille writes to let us know about research into producing palpable maps for the blind. Scientific American has the story of Greek researchers who produce 3D "haptic" maps that "use force fields to represent walls and roads so the visually impaired can better understand the layout of buildings and cities." Two separate systems produce haptic output from standard video and from 2D maps. The systems have been tested on a small number of users. Currently the devices that interpret the "force fields" for sight-impaired users are not portable, and so the systems are most appropriate for doing research before, e.g., visiting a new city.
Thats OK. You have just listed the things which piss me off more than practically anything else. I am not blind but the quality of my environment is important to me. Its a shame we have to invoke the needs of disabled people to get attention paid to things like this.
A good example was a court case in my city about 10 years ago. Home owners in a wealthy area had let their hedges grow to the point where you couldnt see (let alone walk on) the foot path any more. Council told home owners to cut their trees. Home owners told the Council to do without the foot path or build a new one. They lost the case on the strength of the needs of blind people, despite the fact that everybody needs the foot path to walk on.
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While your points are all true, as a scientist it was the description of "force-fields" in the article that really pissed me off. So we map points in the city into "force-fields", and then we "simulate" the "force-fields" with haptic input. So.... in effect there are no force-fields - only geometry which the haptic device then interacts with. Whoever wrote this article is a first class dickwad.
On the subject of visible assumptions, we have a blind guy doing some research into haptic interfaces as part of his PhD. Every so often the department gets the chance to try one of his experiments and the results are odd to say the least. As someone with sight I would assume that most information comes from shape and size, apparently these are secondary cues to the user of a haptic interface. I shouldn't really go into too many details as I'm not sure what he's published and what he hasn't.
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I've been living in Japan for the last few years and they've been using "modern tech" to aid the blind for years. All subway/train/bus stations, and even most sidewalks in downtown areas, have pathways of raised bumps (like sidewalk braille) leading to/from all exits/stairways/crosswalks/etc. It's mind-numbing how pervasive these things are. Braille "enabled" maps are posted all over (with, of course, sidewalk-braille paths leading up to them). They even have braille written (embossed?) on staircase railings saying which floor is the next one up/down, and of course on all elevator buttons. But they don't stop there. Most subways/trains and even buses announce what stop they're at and which one is next. Not to mention the elevators, too.
Anyway, to make a long comment short, it doesn't take fancy tech to make the world easier for disabled people, but a willingness to spend public money to do so. I can't imagine how much all that infrastructure costs, but then I look at my taxes...