A haptic based interface to ease visually impaired pupils' inclusion in geometry lessons

Abstract

This paper describes a system based on haptics and sound, to assist in teaching plane geometry to visually impaired pupils. So far the exploration of the geometric figure was performed with an haptic device and construction commands launched with a keyboard. This way of interaction (switching from a device to another) proved to be quite inefficient. This work aims at using exclusively an haptic device to both perceive and build a figure. To do so, command gestures are introduced to construct a figure. Then two questions arise: are command gestures haptically learnable (pupil's hand being haptically guided along the gesture)? Are command gestures usable to solve a task (here a geometry exercise)? Two experiments have been carried out to answer these questions. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.