Omero 2.0

Abstract

The OMERO 2.0 system (Organized Multimodal Exploration of Relevant Virtual Objects) is an innovative system that enables visually impaired users to explore and edit 3D virtual models. It involves three interaction modalities: visual, haptic and auditory. Virtual models are properly designed to convey the information of interest in a polymorphous and redundant way: the user can therefore choose the sensorial modalities best suited to his/her characteristics, accounting for specific limitations and/or impairments. Virtual models are specially organized to help visually impaired people in building an integrated mental scheme of complex realities (cultural heritage objects and sites, large buildings, abstract concepts in fields such as geometry or chemistry etc.): a challenging task when using a serial sense such as touch. Different semantic layers of the scene (scenarios) convey logically different views of the scene at hand and can be selected separately or in combination depending on the user’s needs: that prevents users from being overwhelmed by too many simultaneous details. The software tools used in this new version of OMERO increase the generality of the system and support a larger number of haptic devices. Moreover, the completely new Interactive Haptic Editor of OMERO offers an innovative haptic interface: the haptic properties of the virtual models can be edited even without using the GUI. This redundant combination of vision and touch improves the efficiency for sighted people and enables visually impaired users (that cannot use a GUI) to modify autonomously the rendering of virtual scenes. This results in their active involvement even in the design phase, improving their ability to match the rendering with their specific and individual needs.