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.

Comments

wonderful

[symes]

Advances in technology can have a very important and positive impact on the lives of the visually impaired. Take, for example, the recent advent of home delivery which has caught on in the UK. The blind can now phone up supermarkets and have groceries delivered to their door - they no longer need the services of sighted folks. Email, as well, means that they have another means of communicating. There are readers which can take text and convert it to either voice or braille - again, they do not require sighted folks input and can manage personal affairs with some privacy. All this is great and it is wonderful to see the tech world take greater interest in helping the visually impaired. But, there are two problems. First, cost. Browse a few sights which sell aids for the blind and you'll see that the prices are extortionate - well beyond the means of most blind people.

But the most important issue, and the one that makes this idea founder, is that mostly it's sighted folks implementing their ideas on what would make the world a better place for the blind. No blind person would likely find themselves wandering an unknown city without some assistance from either a guidedog or sighted assistant. Why? It's not the walls and what not that are the problem... its the idiots who park their cars on pavements, the morons who let their dogs foul the pavements, it's town planners who let trees grow over pavements putting overhanging branches in the way. And so on, and so on. Disrespect is one of the biggest barriers and something that cannot be easily resoved with 'force-fields'.

Sorry to rant, it's a nice idea...

Re:wonderful

[smallfries]

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.

Ehh? What's going on?

[ben0207]

Force fields? Holographic maps? Invisibility cloaks?

How long was I asleep?

Force feedback

[MichaelSmith]

OK the only original idea in TFA is a force feedback glove which simulates touching a surface by pushing back against fingers at the appropriate moment. I can think of lots of uses for that if the device can be put into production.

The rest of it is all about building physical models of spaces, then taking pictures of them and turning the pictures into 3D models using an algorithm which the author is obviously very proud of. Unfortunately most people who design stuff these days build a 3D model in software at the outset, so going the other way is useful, but not the first thing I would think of.

Good

[Godman]

now blind people can have porn too.

"Feels like a couple of hills over here, maybe a park a bit lower, feels like some bushes...."