Tactile models for older adults with vision impairments

Older adults with severe vision impairments often live in residential care institutions that provide specialized care. This user group has specific needs, abilities, and preferences, primarily from the perspective of orientation in space, interaction with technologies, and free-time activities. In this thesis I have proposed a pipeline for reconstruction of a building from images that satisfies the requirements of the patent 'Three-dimensional model of a building primarily for visually impaired older adults' for creation of a tactile 3D map for the visually impaired older adults. The pipeline was designed, implemented and tested with a target user group using the User-centered design method. The results of the evaluation show that there's still a lot to be improved. Furthermore, I have designed and 3D printed an exterior part of the Home Palata building. The printed 3D model was then glued to a wooden model created by Ing. Miroslav Macík, Ph.D. as part of the implementation of the patent mentioned before. I have evaluated the model that I have created with a visually impaired expert. He has shared a lot of valuable insights to improve the model.