A SmarTactile Map Designed for the Visually Impaired to Improve Spatial Cognition

Abstract

Visual information is the most important element in perceiving environments. People use mostly visual information to orient themselves and find their way to go. However, visually impaired people having handicap in vision has many qualitative and quantitative limitations of their experience [1]. Also they have limitation in mobility and opportunity for interaction with their surrounding space. For that reason, there is a tactile map to help their independent walking. It is made up of protruding dot, line, surface and braille. Visually impaired people can recognize the structure of space by touching the tactile map. However, it is not smart enough to use in their real life. Because of such problems, we have been researching this tactile map to make it more useful device. We met several visually impaired people and interviewed them about actual situation of their independent ambulation and using of the tactile map. In addition, we conducted some experiments to find out mechanism of perceiving the tactile map. We analyzed their touching behavior and discovered the problem of existing tactile maps. Based on these findings, we designed prototype of new tactile map and conducted usability evaluation. The result was successful to enhance utility of the tactile map. And we could verify the potential of the new tactile map device.