How Persons with Visual Impairments Explore Novel Spaces: Strategies of Good and Poor Performers

Hill, Everett W.; Rieser, John J.; Hill, M.-M.; Halpin, Julia; Halpin, R.

doi:10.1177/0145482x9308700805

Cited by 71 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Indeed, Hampson and Daly [6] identified strategies as a major potential source of individual variation in tactile map reading skills. Different fundamental exploratory patterns have been identified in previous studies: The "gridline" strategy is a systematic horizontal and then vertical exploration path that has the purpose to find all elements of a configuration [7]. The "cyclic" strategy corresponds to sequentially touching each element of a spatial configuration, and then coming back to the first element (thus forming a loop).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparing Interaction Techniques to Help Blind People Explore Maps on Small Tactile Devices

Simonnet

Brock

Serpa

et al. 2019

MTI

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Exploring geographic maps on touchscreens is a difficult task in the absence of vision as those devices miss tactile cues. Prior research has therefore introduced non-visual interaction techniques designed to allow visually impaired people to explore spatial configurations on tactile devices. In this paper, we present a study in which six blind and six blindfolded sighted participants evaluated three of those interaction techniques compared to a screen reader condition. We observed that techniques providing guidance result in a higher user satisfaction and more efficient exploration. Adding a grid-like structure improved the estimation of distances. None of the interaction techniques improved the reconstruction of the spatial configurations. The results of this study allow improving the design of non-visual interaction techniques that support a better exploration and memorization of maps in the absence of vision.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This strategy can be extended to more than two elements. It is then called the "objects-to-objects" strategy identified by Hill and Rieser [7] and Golledge et al [9]. The "point of reference" strategy uses a star-shaped pattern highlighting a particular interest for the location of one element.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing Interaction Techniques to Help Blind People Explore Maps on Small Tactile Devices

Simonnet

Brock

Serpa

et al. 2019

MTI

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“…Haptics is defined in the Webster dictionary (Webster, 1983) as: ‘of, or relating to, the sense of touch.’Fritz, Way and Barner (1996) define haptics as follows: ‘tactile refers to the sense of touch, while the broader haptics encompasses touch as well as kinesthetic information, or a sense of position, motion and force.’ For the blind, haptic information is commonly supplied by: the cane – for low‐resolution scanning of the immediate surroundings; palms and fingers – for fine recognition of objects’ form, texture and location; and the feet, regarding surface information. The auditory channel supplies complementary information about events, the presence of other people (or machines or animals) in the environment, or estimates of distances within a space (Hill, Rieser, Hill, Halpin & Halpin, 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A blind person's cognitive mapping of new spaces using a haptic virtual environment

Lahav

Mioduser

2003

Research in Spec Educ Needs

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Mental mapping of spaces is essential for the development of efficient orientation and mobility skills. Most of the information required for mental mapping is gathered through the visual channel. Blind people lack this crucial information, facing in consequence difficulties in mapping as well as navigating spaces. The work reported here is based on the assumption that the supply of appropriate spatial information through compensatory sensorial channels may contribute to blind people's spatial performance. The main goals of this study were: (a) the development of a haptic virtual environment enabling blind people to learn about real life spaces; (b) the study of blind people's cognitive mapping of these spaces; and (c) the study of the contribution of this mapping to blind people's spatial skills and performance in the real environment. The focus of this paper is on a case study of G, a 25-year-old late blind. The results were encouraging: G mastered the ability to navigate the virtual environment in a short time; after navigating, he generated a verbal description and a physical model of it which unveiled a fairly precise map of a space he did not know before; and finally G showed impressive navigating performance in the real space.

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“…However, different navigation aids support different strategies for collecting spatial information regarding the position, size, material, and shape of sound reflecting objects [38]. In particular, orientation strategies are characterized by reference point strategies [22] and cyclic patterns [17]. The former requires walking back and forth from a known location to a target destination (e.g., an object, a wall, or the starting position), and the latter consists of successively visiting all places before returning to the starting position.…”

Section: Navigation With Auditory Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Auditory Feedback for Navigation with Echoes in Virtual Environments: Training Procedure and Orientation Strategies

Andreasen

Geronazzo

Nilsson

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Visual. Comput. Graphics

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1 2 3 4 Fig. 1: The virtual environment used for training human echolocation resembled a dark virtual cave (left panel). Test participants performed a navigation task which consists in finding the exit of a tunnel to the opening of the cave (right panel, 1-4 are photographs in sequence of a trial) with different types of unimodal auditory or visual feedback. Real-time auralization was designed within Steam Audio engine and delivered through headphones. An Oculus Rift and Touch controller supported the navigation.Abstract-Being able to hear objects in an environment, for example using echolocation, is a challenging task. The main goal of the current work is to use virtual environments (VEs) to train novice users to navigate using echolocation. Previous studies have shown that musicians are able to differentiate sound pulses from reflections. This paper presents design patterns for VE simulators for both training and testing procedures, while classifying users' navigation strategies in the VE. Moreover, the paper presents features that increase users' performance in VEs. We report the findings of two user studies: a pilot test that helped improve the sonic interaction design, and a primary study exposing participants to a spatial orientation task during four conditions which were early reflections (RF), late reverberation (RV), early reflections-reverberation (RR) and visual stimuli (V). The latter study allowed us to identify navigation strategies among the users. Some users (10/26) reported an ability to create spatial cognitive maps during the test with auditory echoes, which may explain why this group performed better than the remaining participants in the RR condition.

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How Persons with Visual Impairments Explore Novel Spaces: Strategies of Good and Poor Performers

Cited by 71 publications

References 6 publications

Comparing Interaction Techniques to Help Blind People Explore Maps on Small Tactile Devices

Comparing Interaction Techniques to Help Blind People Explore Maps on Small Tactile Devices

A blind person's cognitive mapping of new spaces using a haptic virtual environment

Auditory Feedback for Navigation with Echoes in Virtual Environments: Training Procedure and Orientation Strategies

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