Automatic visual to tactile translation. I. Human factors, access methods and image manipulation

Way, Tom; Barner, Kenneth E.

doi:10.1109/86.559353

Cited by 99 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The bandwidth of the human auditory system is about 20 Khz, thus by virtue of the Nyquist theorem the maximal amount of information that could be transmitted through this channel without loss is 40 Kbps. Note that the visual channel has the largest capacity with about 1000 Kbps [26], while the sense of touch would is less powerful than audition with about 0.1 Kbps [26]. Total vision substitution would be impossible to achieve, as the bandwidth of touch or audition would be inadequate.…”

Section: Mobility Aid Channel Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

On the use of the auditory pathway to represent image scenes in real-time

Bologna¹,

Deville

Pun

2009

Neurocomputing

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The See Color interface transforms a small portion of a coloured video image into sound sources represented by spatialised musical instruments. Basically, the conversion of colours into sounds is achieved by quantisation of the HSL colour system. Our purpose is to provide visually impaired individuals with a capability of perception of the environment in real time. In this work we present the system principles of design and several experiments that have been carried out by several blindfolded persons with See ColOr prototypes related to static pictures on a tablet and simple video images. The goal of the first experiment was to identify the colours of static pictures' main features and then to interpret the image scenes. Although learning all instrument sounds in only a training session was too difficult, participants found that colours were helpful to limit the possible image interpretations. The experiments on the analysis of static pictures suggested that the order of magnitude of the slow down factor related to the use of the auditory channel, instead of the visual channel could correspond to the order of magnitude related to the ratio of visual channel capacity to auditory channel capacity. Afterwards, two experiments based on a head mounted camera have been performed. The first experiment pertaining to object manipulation is based on the pairing of coloured socks, while the second experiment is related to outdoor navigation with the goal of following a coloured serpentine painted on the ground. The "socks" experiment demonstrated that blindfolded individuals were able to accurately match pairs of coloured socks. The same participants with the addition of a blind individual successfully followed a red serpentine painted on the ground for more than 80 meters. According to task time durations, the order of magnitude of the slow down factor related to the "socks" and "serpentine" experiments could be equal to one. From a cognitive perspective this would be consistent with the fact that these two tasks are simpler than the interpretation of image scenes.

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Section: Mobility Aid Channel Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

On the use of the auditory pathway to represent image scenes in real-time

Bologna¹,

Deville

Pun

2009

Neurocomputing

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“…Static tactile methods, using (say) swell paper, have been widely adopted as a simple but effective way to realize information. Way and Barner present two seminal papers on automatic visual to tactile translation [36,37], while Rassmus-Gröhn et al [26] developed a haptic-audio drawing program, where lines could be drawn with positive and negative relief using the PHANTOM.…”

Section: Haptic Visualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where are we with Haptic Visualization?

Roberts

Panëels

2007

Second Joint EuroHaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (WHC'07

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There is a growing interest into non-visual forms of data communication, not only driven by the need for accessible representations but also because researchers are realizing the potential of understanding information better or differently through other modalities. Thus, haptic visualization is an immature but exciting area; it represents the abstract realization of information through the use of tactile or force-feedback devices. Through such a realization the user can gain quantitative, qualitative or nominal understanding of some underlying data. This paper presents the growth and development of haptic visualization, shows current trends, and acts as a snapshot of history. In fact, we remember the past based on temporal landmarks: we remember what we were doing when we heard the news of 9/11. Thus it is interesting and useful to look at the subject in the context of key events and seminal work. Moreover, it helps us to not re-invent the wheel: something that is far too common with interdisciplinary work. Thus, we take a holistic approach to the literature and place the research in context of important historic events and seminal work, which shows the reader where we have been, and points towards the future.

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“…The bandwidth of the human auditory system is about 20 Khz, thus by virtue of the Nyquist theorem the maximal amount of information that could be transmitted through this channel without loss is 40 Kbps. Note that the visual channel has the largest capacity with about 1000 Kbps [7], while the sense of touch is less powerful than audition with about 0.1 Kbps [7]. Total vision substitution would be impossible to achieve, as the bandwidth of touch or audition would be inadequate.…”

Section: A Color Encodingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A perceptual interface for vision substitution in a color matching experiment

Bologna¹,

Deville

Vinckenbosch³

et al. 2008

2008 IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence)

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Abstract-In the context of vision substitution by the auditory channel several systems have been introduced. One such system that is presented here, See ColOr, is a dedicated interface part of a mobility aid for visually impaired people. It transforms a small portion of a colored video image into spatialized instrument sounds. In this work the purpose is to verify the hypothesis that sounds from musical instruments provide an alternative way to vision for obtaining color information from the environment. We introduce an experiment in which several participants try to match pairs of colored socks by pointing a head mounted camera and by listening to the generated sounds. Our experiments demonstrated that blindfolded individuals were able to accurately match pairs of colored socks. The advantage of the See ColOr interface is that it allows the user to receive a feedback auditory signal from the environment and its colors, promptly. Our perceptual auditory coding of pixel values opens the opportunity to achieve more complicated experiments related to vision tasks, such as perceiving the environment by interpreting its colors.

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Automatic visual to tactile translation. I. Human factors, access methods and image manipulation

Cited by 99 publications

References 39 publications

On the use of the auditory pathway to represent image scenes in real-time

On the use of the auditory pathway to represent image scenes in real-time

Where are we with Haptic Visualization?

A perceptual interface for vision substitution in a color matching experiment

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