Handheld haptic display with braille I/O

Abstract

This paper describes the implementation of a handheld haptic display using verbal and nonverbal communication technologies for visually impaired pedestrians. Wearable and mobile human-computer-interface technologies provide the means to use the display in daily life. Six ring-mounted vibrators for the finger-braille method, one of the commonly used communication methods among deaf-blind people in Japan, and a textual input interface designed on the basis of the braille input method, are adopted as the verbal I/O interface. As the non-verbal I/O interface, a perceptual force attraction method, which can convey "pull" or "push" sensations on handheld devices, is adopted for intuitive way-finding. The handheld haptic display with these technologies integrated has the potential to support wayfinding not only for blind people but also for sighted people. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.