Proactive Agents to Assist Multimodal Explorative Learning of Astronomical Phenomena

Tuominen, Elina; Kangassalo, Marjatta; Hietala, Pentti; Raisamo, Roope; Peltola, Kari

doi:10.1155/2008/387076

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

(27 reference statements)

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“…in physics, biology and astronomy [24][25][26]. The potential of haptics has been shown in experiments, but further investigation is required to design applications in a real-life context [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Haptic cues as a utility to perceive and recognise geometry

Shimomura

Hvannberg

Hafsteinsson

2012

Univ Access Inf Soc

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Research has been conducted on how to aid blind peoples' perceptions and cognition of scientific data and, specifically, on how to strengthen their background in mathematics as a means of accomplishing this goal. In search of alternate modes to vision, researchers and practitioners have studied the opportunities of haptics alone and in combination with other modes, such as audio. What is already known, and has motivated research in this area, is that touch and vision might form a common brain representation that is shared between the visual and haptic modalities and through haptics learning is active rather than passive. In spite of extensive research on haptics in the areas of psychology and neuropsychology, recent advances and rare experiences in using haptic technology have not caused a transfer from basic knowledge in the area of haptics to learning applications and practical guidelines on how to develop such applications. Thus motivated, this study investigates different haptic effects, such as free space, magnetic effects and the bounded box when blind people are given the task of recognising and manipulating classes of 3D objects with which they have varying familiarity. In parallel, this study investigates the applicability of Sjöström's guidelines on haptic applications development and uses his problem classification to capture knowledge from the experiments. The results of this study show that users can easily recognise and manipulate familiar objects, albeit with some assistance. There is an indication that users completed tasks faster and needed less assistance with magnetic effects. However, they were not as satisfied with this mode. While the results of this study show that haptics have the potential to allow students to conceptualise 3D objects, much more work is needed to exploit this technology to the fullest. Objects with higher complexity are difficult for students, and, in their opinion, the virtual objects (as presented) leave much room for improvement. Sjöström's error taxonomy proved useful, and four of five sub-guidelines tested were confirmed to be useful in this study.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Haptic cues as a utility to perceive and recognise geometry

Shimomura

Hvannberg

Hafsteinsson

2012

Univ Access Inf Soc

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A review of principles in design and usability testing of tactile technology for individuals with visual impairments

Horton

Renganathan

Toth

et al. 2016

Assistive Technology

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To lay the groundwork for devising, improving, and implementing new technologies to meet the needs of individuals with visual impairments, a systematic literature review was conducted to: a) describe hardware platforms used in assistive devices, b) identify their various applications, and c) summarize practices in user testing conducted with these devices. A search in relevant EBSCO databases for articles published between 1980 and 2014 with terminology related to visual impairment, technology, and tactile sensory adaptation yielded 62 articles that met the inclusion criteria for final review. It was found that while earlier hardware development focused on pin matrices, the emphasis then shifted toward force feedback haptics and accessible touch screens. The inclusion of interactive and multimodal features has become increasingly prevalent. The quantity and consistency of research on navigation, education, and computer accessibility suggest that these are pertinent areas of need for the visually impaired community. Methodologies for usability testing ranged from case studies to larger cross-sectional studies. Many studies used blindfolded sighted users to draw conclusions about design principles and usability. Altogether, the findings presented in this review provide insight on effective design strategies and user testing methodologies for future research on assistive technology for individuals with visual impairments.

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