WEB-ENABLED CREATION AND
DISTRIBUTION OF AUDIO-TACTILE MAPS FOR USE IN ORIENTATION AND MOBILITY
TRAINING: TALKING TMAP
Presenter
#1
Steven Landau
Touch Oraphics, Inc
330 West 38 Street Suite 1204
New York
NY
10018
USA
Day Phone: 212—375—6341
Fax: 646—452—4511 C
Email: sl@touchgraphics.com
PRESENTER #2
Joshua Miele
Smith Kettelwell RERC
2318 Fillmore Street
San Francisco
CA
94115
USA
ay Phone: 212—375—6341
Fax:
Email: sl@touchgraphics .com
Work on a new system for generating on—the—fly talking tactile maps for use in
orientation and nobility training will be presented. Users go to a web site,
enter an address in the
Digital technologies are creating significant new life-enhancements for
individuals with disabilities. One very promising development is the new
Tactile Map Automated Production (TMAP) system created by researchers at Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute (SKERI) in
The
power of TMAP, however, is partially limited by the technical problems
associated with providing complete and unambiguous text labeling of place names
and other information associated with the tactile maps it generates. For this
reason, the developers of TMAP at Smith-Kettelwell
have teamed with Touch Graphics, Inc., to produce a new version of the system.
This work, being carried out under funding from a Phase 1 SBIR grant through
the US Department of Education (National Institute for Disability and
Rehabilitation Research), has led to the creation of new features for the TMAP
site. These allow the user to request that, in addition to the tactile map
file, they are sent supplemental information that allows the map generated to
be used in conjunction with Touch Graphics’ Talking Tactile Tablet (TTT). The
map created under these conditions will include all of the tools and controls
needed to operate the TTT (see figure 2, a sample sheet for Talking TMAPs). The user places the embossed overlay sheet,
including the map, on the TTT device (see figure 3, a photograph of the TTT
device), and then interacts with the map by pressing on various streets and
other landmarks to hear audio information about the thing that was pressed.
Map information is supplied in a layered fashion, and the user taps his or her
finger to “reveal” each subsequent layer. So, the user presses once to hear,
say, a street name, then taps again to hear the address range for buildings
located along that particular block, taps again to learn how many lanes of
traffic normally move on that street, and taps again to find out in which
direction automobile traffic can be expected to be flowing. By this means, a
very large amount of information is made accessible to the user, but he or she has
complete control over how much or little of this is spoken at any moment, so
the user is not overwhelmed by “too much information”.
Figure
3: A photograph of the Talking Tactile Tablet with an overlay sheet from the
National Geographic Talking Tactile Atlas of the World mounted.
In addition to audio-tactile interactivity described above, Talking TMAP will
also permit the map user to access a Main Menu of options, to carry out
specific tasks, such as consulting an alphabetical index of all of the places
depicted on any map that has been generated with the system, and then having
their finger led to that location on the tactile sheet. Other Main Menu options
include a distance calculator, filters to screen out unwanted classes of
information and the ability to adjust user settings, such as speech rate, voice
preference and touch sensitivity
The speakers will describe the system, provide a live
demonstration of the process of creating and using maps made with Talking TMAP.
They will also present findings from the Phase 1 usability trials, in which
blind users in New York City and San Francisco, and deaf-blind at Helen Keller
National Center in Sands Point users (with the aid of a refreshable Braille
display), New York, were asked to make and interpret maps. They will also
outline their plans for possible follow-on research.
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