[optacon-l] Re: Questions about tactile displays and assistive devices for the blind
- From: Jim Bliss <jamescbliss@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, teller@xxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 7 May 2011 15:30:30 -0700
Seth,
I was very pleased to see your post on the Optacon Listserv. I wish you
the
great success in your project. I'm not an Optacon user, but I did lead the
original Optacon development team at Stanford and SRI that involved many
people who were blind and potential users of whatever we developed.
But that was over 50 years ago and I believe that it is time for developing
new
products with tactile displays for a variety of tasks. The Optacon has been
out of production for over 15 years, and while some of them are still being
used,
we are on the verge of losing this type of product forever.
A couple of years ago I wrote a "Think piece" one what I thought a new
"Optacon-
like-device" could be. I've attached that to this email.
I think the key to new devices will be the tactile display technology. Last
year I worked
with a small company, Zone24x7, to study the feasibility of using EPAM
technology to
produce less expensive, easier to manufacture, tactile displays. We were
fortunate to have
a Phase I NSR SBIR grant for this project.
Below are some responses to your questions. If there is anyway I can help,
let me know.
Jim Bliss
jamescbliss@xxxxxxxxx
650-941-7495
1 West Edith Ave. B208
Los Altos, CA 94022
> Anyway, here are a few questions to start:
>
> 1. People use the Optacon to read text, math symbols and engineering
> plots. For what sort of other pictorial representations do you use
> the device? How well does this work for you? Where or how does it fail?
>
>The Optacon Listserv is full of tasks that Optacon users have successfully
done with the Optacon. Often the task was very important and couldn't
easily
be done any other way.
>
> 2. The psychophysics literature cites spatial resolutions as fine as
> 40 microns (25 dots per millimeter) on the fingertips, but the spacing
> on the Optacon is much coarser than that. What spatial resolution do
> you want or need?
>
>The Optacon resolution was a compromise between that needed to read
print and the expense of higher resolution with the bimorph technology.
The result was a 24x6 array with only 24 dots/inch over a letterspace field
of view, which is less than the 300 dots/inch needed for OCR. I would like
to see a 36x12 array over a larger field of view.
>Another change that I think would be a great improvement would be to make
a "one-hand device". What I visualize is a product the size of a
double-thick
iPhone. The tactile array would be along one edge, the camera along the
opposite edge. With one hand the camera could be pointed at print,
electronic
displays, and items at a distance, while the user could simultaneously feel
the
camera images on the tactile array.
>When I compare what the first Optacon users were able to do with what long
time Optacon users can do now, it makes me believe in brain plasticity. I
believe
that greater resolution would make a big difference.
>
> 3. Can you imagine other methods beside vibration (e.g., variation in
> pin height) that would effectively convey information over an area?
>
>Vibration intensity and frequency, waveform, pulse code, combine with
electrical stimulation, etc.
>
> 4. Several blind people have asked us to develop a larger surface,
> perhaps the size of a smartphone or even an iPad, which could be felt
> with 4 or 8 (non-thumb) fingers simultaneously in order to "explore"
> the user's surround. If you had a larger device and wanted to use it
> in a mobile context, where would you place it on your body? On one of
> your forearms, to be felt with the other hand? On one hip? What about
> making small, light finger pads or a glove to keep a small part of the
> display surface in contact with each finger regardless of how your hands
> move? This would get in the way of direct touch sensing of other
> things (though in the long run, perhaps we could make the tactile array
> a kind of "pass-through" device). What do you think of these ideas?
>
>The Optacon stimulators make and break contact to the skin each
vibration cycle. The finger plate is essential in making this happen
to produce a strong sensation. The fingertip has much higher resolution
than the forearm.
>
> 5. In the long run, our goal is to support many activities in the home
> and out in the world: navigation, object finding, text-spotting and
> reading (e.g. from signs at a distance), people detection, reporting
> facial expressions, shopping, taxi hailing, etc. It's a much longer
> conversation, but: what are the capabilities you would want from such
> a device?
>
>Connection to a PC, OCR and text-to-speech on the PC, Braille translation,
file storage, Apps, etc.
>
> to view the list archives, go to:
>
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>
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>
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>
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