[Blindmath] using tactile graphics

[Rich Caloggero]

Personally, I would use an embosser. It is much quicker and requires fewer 
steps.

Can you describe your device in more detail?  Is it a mouse with some sort 
of small tactile display built into it?  If so, how big is the display (in 
pixels and in real-world measure)? Why the need for printed graphics?

Thanx much.
-- Rich

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dianne T Pawluk/FS/VCU" <dtpawluk at vcu.edu>
To: <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 2:00 PM
Subject: [Blindmath] using tactile graphics


> Hi Everyone,
>
> I am a researcher at VCU whose lab group is working on developing haptic
> computer interface
> devices and interactive display methods for tactile graphics.  As
> background for the question
> that I would like to ask, I would like to tell you about one of the
> devices that we made.  It is
> an improved, low-cost tactile mouse.  However, it differs from previous
> tactile mice, such as
> the VT Player, in that it solves some of the problems that we feel make
> using the VT Player
> or similar devices very difficult to use.  The first problem we identified
> is that the VT Player
> and all other tactile devices that use an optical mouse sensor, suffers
> from a significant
> lack of accuracy in the haptic position information, which is critical for
> interpreting a graphic.
> It also has a lack of spatial concordance between the position information
> of the optical
> sensor and the tactile arrays, which is particularly noticeable when the
> mouse is rotated.
> It also has a slow temporal response, which creates a time delay which
> makes it difficult
> to use when moving the device quickly.  We have fixed all these problems
> and have developed
> a fully functional device for less than $400 US.  We would like to test
> our device against other
> tactile mice and the typically used method for displaying tactile
> graphics.
>
> My question is that when you are in an educational or work environment and
> need to
> create and use a graph, would you use a Braille embosser to create the
> graphic or puff paper?
> Unfortunately, the way our experiment is designed, we can only really
> afford the time
> to look at one of these (as otherwise, with the other factors involved the
> experiment would
> become very tiresome) and would like to choose the method typically used
> by the
> expected end users of our device.
>
> Thanks very much for your help!  And if you have any questions you would
> like to
> ask about our work, feel free to do so.
>
> Sincerely,
> Dianne Pawluk
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