[Blindmath] using tactile graphics

[Sharon Clark]

Hello Dianne,

I am a teacher of the visually impaired who is blind as well.  I usually
create tactile graphics with the puff paper, but  can manage with the
embossed images as well.

Sharon Clark, TVI 


-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Dianne T Pawluk/FS/VCU
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 2:00 PM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
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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