Virtual Environments for People who Are Visually Impaired Integrated into an Orientation and Mobility Program (original) (raw)
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Computers & education, 2015
This paper presents the integration of a virtual environment (BlindAid) in an orientation and mobility rehabilitation program as a training aid for people who are blind. BlindAid allows the users to interact with different virtual structures and objects through auditory and haptic feedback. This research explores if and how use of the BlindAid in conjunction with a rehabilitation program can help people who are blind train themselves in familiar and unfamiliar spaces. The study, focused on nine participants who were congenitally, adventitiously, and newly blind, during their orientation and mobility rehabilitation program at the Carroll Center for the Blind (Newton, Massachusetts, USA). The research was implemented using virtual environment (VE) exploration tasks and orientation tasks in virtual environments and real spaces. The methodology encompassed both qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews, a questionnaire, videotape recording, and user computer logs. The r...
Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 2013
BlindAid, a virtual environment system developed in part for orientation and mobility training of newly, adventitiously, and congenitally blind persons, allows interaction with different virtual structures and objects via auditory and haptic feedback. This research examined whether and how the system might help people who are blind develop orientation and mobility skills within a traditional rehabilitation program. Nine clients at The Carroll Center for the Blind (Newton, MA) explored VEs and performed virtual orientation tasks in addition to their traditional orientation and mobility training. The virtual training gave the participants additional time to learn systematic exploration and orientation strategies and their performance was evaluated using qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings supply strong evidence that practicing with the BlindAid system does enhance traditional orientation and mobility training in these areas.
Virtual environment support orientation skills of newly blind
2011 International Conference on Virtual Rehabilitation, 2011
The newly blind face enormous emotional, cognitive and physical difficulties in the first stage of rehabilitation. During the traditional orientation and mobility rehabilitation program, the newly blind are trained in basic orientation and mobility skills. The virtual system BlindAid aimed to serve as a simulator for the subject to practice his or her new spatial knowledge and orientation and mobility strategies. The two main goals of this research were to examine: (1) the exploration strategies and process of the newly blind when using a virtual environment; (2) the contribution of the virtual environment exploration process to performance on orientation tasks in virtual environments and real spaces. The findings supply evidence that interaction with the BlindAid system by people who are newly blind provides the participants' development of comprehensive cognitive maps of actual known and unknown spaces during their rehabilitation program.
3D Virtual Environments for the Rehabilitation of the Blind
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2009
The accretion of orientation and mobility skills in blind people is fundamental for the development of an independent life. To these ends, activities oriented towards reinforcing this line of knowledge require direct interactions with spaces in real places, and the assistance of an educator or a companion as well. The objective of this study was to design, implement and evaluate 3D virtual environments in order to evaluate orientation and mobility learning in an unfamiliar environment based on the use of such environments. The procedure was provided by a learning stage in which the user learned to move about in the virtual environments, followed by an interaction stage in which he/she traveled virtually through the environments, to then travel the virtual environments that had been navigated virtually in the real world. To simulate the virtual surroundings, Unreal Engine was used, which is a gaming engine that allows for the construction of scenarios through a graphic editor. The results obtained show that the users were able to run the established route without any difficulties, for which reason it can be established that it is possible to produce mental models of real places through virtual interactions guided only by auditory cues.
Design and implementation of virtual environments training of the visually impaire
Proceedings of the fifth international ACM conference on Assistive technologies - Assets '02, 2002
This paper presents the virtual reality applications developed for the feasibility study tests of the EU funded IST project ENORASI. ENORASI aims at developing a highly interactive and extensible haptic VR training system that allows visually impaired people, especially those blind from birth, to study and interact with various virtual objects. A number of custom applications have been developed based on the interface provided by the CyberGrasp haptic device. Eight test categories were identified and corresponding tests were developed for each category. Twenty-six blind persons conducted the tests and the evaluation results have shown ~the degree of acceptance of the technology and the feasibility of the proposed approach.
Virtual environments for the training of visually impaired
2002
In recent years researchers have started developing force feedback interfaces, which permit blind people not only to access bi-dimensional graphic interfaces (as was the case until now), but in addition to access information present on 3D Virtual Reality interfaces anticipating that the latter will be the natural form of information interchange in the very near future [1].
Integrate the BlindAid system in a traditional orientation and mobility rehabilitation program
2009 Virtual Rehabilitation International Conference, 2009
In the process of becoming blind, newly-blinded people participate in a rehabilitation program, which includes different skills that a newly-blinded person needs to adapt as a result of his or her lost of vision. The virtual system, the BlindAid, involves active collaboration between orientation and mobility instructors from the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Massachusetts and engineers and cognitive scientists at the MIT Touch Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The two teams collaborated in the integration of the BlindAid system in the traditional orientation and mobility rehabilitation program. In this study we will describe the model of the integration. The three main goals of this model were to study: (1) cognitive mapping process of newly-blinded when using the virtual environment; (2) mental support of the BlindAid system to the newly-blinded; and (3) enhancement of the BlindAid system for the orientation and mobility instructors. The findings supply strong evidence that interaction with the BlindAid system by people who are newly-blinded provides a robust foundation for the participants' development of comprehensive cognitive maps of actual unknown spaces during their rehabilitation program.