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Studying Maps for the Blind and Visually Impaired
posted by Satri
on Monday August 27, @01:07PM
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from the seeing-is-believing dept.
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GIS Monitor runs an article about studying map uses by blind people. From the article: "Traditional maps, whether printed or displayed on a screen, are useless to millions of blind and visually impaired people. A small group of researchers is now using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study how blind people use tactile maps and what brain functions are activated by that task. [...] One of the goals is to collect data on what part of the brain processes maps. Another one is to improve training. We've done an initial scan, where we've given three different kinds of spatial tasks that involve maps. We are going to put together a weekend training class, where we show people how a map relates to the environment so that they get more used to using it as a navigation tool. Then we are going to scan them again and see whether their brains have changed."
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Listening to Maps
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The Cartography blog as an interesting entry about sound maps for the visually impaired. From the blog: "There are multimedia maps that include sounds [...]. Then there are maps that rely on sound to convey the data, meant for use by the visually impaired." From one of the links provided: "A research project (www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/audiomap) at the University of Maryland's Human Computer Interaction Laboratory (HCIL) investigated interactive sonification (user-controlled data-driven non-speech sound) to present the geographical distribution pattern of statistical data. In addition to helping blind users, this will benefit low-vision and sighted users in visually overloaded situations. The immediate goal is improving access to geo-referenced data. In a larger context, this will improve citizen access to government statistics for queries, problem solving, and decision making."
3-D Virtual Maps For the Blind
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Related to this previous story, Slashdot discuss a Scientific American article on virtual maps for the blind: tactile models based on video footage to make navigating a new city easier. The Slashdot summary: "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."
Studying Maps for the Blind and Visually Impaired
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A view of Prague for the blind
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