Ji-Won Songand Graduate school of Techno Design, Kookmin University.Haptic Sight is a new interface idea providing immediate spatial information to visually impaired people in order to assist independent walking. The interface idea stems from a thorough investigation in which we studied visually impaired people's indoor walking behavior, decision making process, their unique concept of space, and information needs. The aim of this study is to identify an interface design and investigate an appropriate means of spatial information delivery.Design ACM 978-1-60558-930-5/10/04.
There are many canes in the market focusing on different specific group of users. This study aims to amass data to identify problems face by cane user (CU) and potential cane user (PCU) to determine the specific user group for the new cane design. A series of preliminary research (systematic review, online questionnaires, interview and direct observations) focusing on cane and user experience was conducted for this research. For systematic review, 26 cane-related-articles were chosen and finalized from 3 online databases (PubMed, Medscope and Science Direct). An online questionnaire was distributed to 46 Malaysians, age 40 and above, to understand their current health status and how they perceive the use of cane. 3 elders above 75 years old were interviewed to understand their current difficulties and health status in depth. Finally, 3 uniquely designed canes were distributed and tested among a group of Koreans aged 20s, 30s and 40s without cane experience for user interaction observation. Research shows that cane should be used correctly as misuse of canes could cause the increase of elderly's fall risk and thus affects the confidence of CU and PCU towards cane. First time users (FTU) of cane could be found among people in age group 50-59 years old. This research has suggested FTU as the specific user group of the new design as problems faced by CU and PCU are related to the lack of cane instruction in early stage. This study is conducted as a part of long-term project that ultimately designs a cane for the elderly.
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