Abstract
In selecting an apartment for residence, floor plans are a common source of relevant information. For visually impaired people, adequate floor plans are widely missing. This paper introduces a haptic-audio assistance system, which is designed and implemented to help visually impaired people to acquire the layout of novel small-scale apartments. Virtual 2.5-D floor plan models are made according to—traditional visual—floor plans. Haptic force feedback will be rendered when users explore the virtual model by a PHANToM Omni device. During the exploration, auditory assistance information about floor plans, either by speech or by sonification, is invoked by entering into prescribed areas, which are placed on the inner contour of rooms. Two user studies are presented which demonstrate the usability of the haptic-audio interface. In particular, reinforcement and extra positive influence brought by the employment of multiple modes in audio perception channel is confirmed.
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Yu, J., Habel, C. (2012). A Haptic-Audio Interface for Acquiring Spatial Knowledge about Apartments. In: Magnusson, C., Szymczak, D., Brewster, S. (eds) Haptic and Audio Interaction Design. HAID 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7468. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32796-4_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32796-4_3
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