Usability assessment of assistive technology for blind and visually impaired

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Dascalu ◽  
Alin Moldoveanu ◽  
Oana Balan ◽  
Robert Gabriel Lupu ◽  
Florina Ungureanu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Blind And Visually Impaired ◽  
Usability Assessment

scholarly journals Wearable Urban Mobility Assistive Device for Visually Impaired Pedestrians Using a Smartphone and a Tactile-Foot Interface

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5274
Author(s):  
Ricardo Tachiquin ◽  
Ramiro Velázquez ◽  
Carolina Del-Valle-Soto ◽  
Carlos A. Gutiérrez ◽  
Miguel Carrasco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Assistive Device ◽  
Urban Mobility ◽  
Urban Settings ◽  
Blind And Visually Impaired ◽  
Outdoor Environments

This paper reports on the progress of a wearable assistive technology (AT) device designed to enhance the independent, safe, and efficient mobility of blind and visually impaired pedestrians in outdoor environments. Such device exploits the smartphone’s positioning and computing capabilities to locate and guide users along urban settings. The necessary navigation instructions to reach a destination are encoded as vibrating patterns which are conveyed to the user via a foot-placed tactile interface. To determine the performance of the proposed AT device, two user experiments were conducted. The first one requested a group of 20 voluntary normally sighted subjects to recognize the feedback provided by the tactile-foot interface. The results showed recognition rates over 93%. The second experiment involved two blind voluntary subjects which were assisted to find target destinations along public urban pathways. Results show that the subjects successfully accomplished the task and suggest that blind and visually impaired pedestrians might find the AT device and its concept approach useful, friendly, fast to master, and easy to use.

scholarly journals Technological Opportunity Analysis: Assistive Technology for Blind and Visually Impaired People

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jumi Hwang ◽  
Kyung Hee Kim ◽  
Jong Gyu Hwang ◽  
Sungchan Jun ◽  
Jiwon Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Activity Index ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Assistive Device ◽  
Signal Acquisition ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Generative Topographic Mapping ◽  
Blind And Visually Impaired ◽  
Grid Points

As life expectancy increases, the number of people who suffer from blind and visual impairment due to presbyopia is gradually increasing. Assistive device systems have been used to overcome various physical, social, infrastructure, and accessibility barriers. As technology has advanced, the scope of assistive technologies has been expanded. Therefore, we explored technological opportunities in assistive technology for the blind and visually impaired to establish a strategy for the technology competition in the near future. Firstly, the patent vacuum is detected by generating the patent map based on generative topographic mapping (GTM). Secondly, social network analysis is applied to identify the relationship between patent vacuums and occupied grid points in the patent map. Finally, the technology activity index and technology impact index are considered at quantitative and qualitative levels. Consequently, it was identified that wearable devices, including the road situation signal acquisition module and data acquisition process control module, could be occupied in the future. This study can provide practical ideas for research and development (R&D) in the field of assistive devices for the blind and visually impaired. In addition, this study can be an ample source for decision/policy makers to project new contents.

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