Assessment of feedback modalities for wearable visual aids in blind mobility

Abstract

Sensory substitution devices engage sensory modalities other than vision to communicate information typically obtained through the sense of sight. In this paper, we examine the ability of subjects who are blind to follow simple verbal and vibrotactile commands that allow them to navigate a complex path. A total of eleven visually impaired subjects were enrolled in the study. Prototype systems were developed to deliver verbal and vibrotactile commands to allow an investigator to guide a subject through a course. Using this mode, subjects could follow commands easily and navigate significantly faster than with their cane alone (p <0.05). The feedback modes were similar with respect to the increased speed for course completion. Subjects rated usability of the feedback systems as “above average” with scores of 76.3 and 90.9 on the system usability scale.

Crosswalk Guidance System for the Blind

“…This helped the users adjust their responses. After training, simple verbal cues were effective in guiding the subjects, consistent with our earlier studies [13]. Use of bone conduction headphones is recommended so that the ear canal, and natural hearing, are available for the users since they often rely on environmental cues for navigation.…”

Augmented reality powers a cognitive assistant for the blind

“…In addition, one can envision hardware extensions by adding peripherals to the computer. For example, a haptic belt or vest could be used to convey collision alarms ( Adebiyi et al, 2017 ), thus leaving the auditory channel open for the highly informative messages.…”

Neural Efficiency of Human–Robotic Feedback Modalities Under Stress Differs With Gender

“…Furthermore, in the visual feedback condition, women performed better under no stress than stress. It is evident from this study that the optimal combination of feedback modalities depends, in part, on individual characteristics (e.g., gender; Park et al, 2012), and context (e.g., stress; van Huysduynen et al, 2016; Adebiyi et al, 2017). Contrary to our expectations, the visual + haptic feedback modality did not distribute the neural cost across visual and haptic sensory modalities such that cognitive resources required for task execution will be reduced (Wickens, 2002; Sigrist et al, 2013).…”

“…What is the optimal combination of feedback modalities (e.g., visual + haptic or visual + auditory or auditory + haptic or visual + auditory + haptic)? That depends, in part, on the task type (Burke et al, 2006), individual preferences (Koehn and Kuchenbecker, 2015), individual differences (Park et al, 2012), and context (van Huysduynen et al, 2016; Adebiyi et al, 2017). In the surgical robotics domain, surgeons have been found to better characterize tissue via palpation in multi-modal (visual + haptic) feedback than in a single modality (haptic) feedback (Abiri et al, 2018).…”