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Sound Information Aiding for the Visually Impaired

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Sound-Based Assistive Technology

Abstract

In this chapter, the author mainly discusses two assistive tools for the visually impaired . One of these is a kind of screen reader that we call the “Tactile Jog-dial ”. It converts verbal information such as text into speech signals for which the speech speed can be controlled by blind users, while displaying non-verbal information such as rich text to the tactile sense of a fingertip. This is based on the experimental result that most blind people can recognize spoken language at around three times the speech speed than standard. The other are mobility aid devices that detect environmental information and display it to the auditory sense of the blind using sounds so that the blind can recognize the environment, especially obstacles, surrounding them. These were modeled after the echolocation function of bats and also an ability of obstacle sense that the blind acquire. Moreover, he talks about a method of controlling the balance function by sound localization .

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Ifukube, T. (2017). Sound Information Aiding for the Visually Impaired. In: Sound-Based Assistive Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47997-2_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47997-2_7

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