Abstract
This paper introduces the first haptic interface to help blind and deaf-blind people to practice horse riding as a sportive, recreational and therapeutic activity. As a form of animal assisted therapy, horse riding has been shown to benefit people with various medical conditions. Among other benefits, horse riding can improve self-esteem and a sensation of independence. However, in the case of deaf-blind individuals a therapist or an interpreter must be present at all times to communicate with the rider by touch. We developed a novel interface which enables deaf-blind people to ride a horse while the therapist is observing and remotely providing cues to the rider, which improves his independence. Initial tests of the concept with an autistic deaf-blind individual received very positive feedback from the rider, his family and therapist.
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Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the European Commission under EU-FP7 grants PITN-GA-2012-317488-CONTEST, ICT-601003 BALANCE, ICT-2013-10 SYMBITRON and H2020 ICT 644727 COGIMON. We would like to than Doug Smith from RDA for fruitful discussions and assistance during the tests.
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Ogrinc, M., Farkhatdinov, I., Walker, R., Burdet, E. (2016). Deaf-Blind Can Practise Horse Riding with the Help of Haptics. In: Bello, F., Kajimoto, H., Visell, Y. (eds) Haptics: Perception, Devices, Control, and Applications. EuroHaptics 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9774. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42321-0_42
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42321-0_42
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