New applications of tactile modules for individuals with vision impairments

An interactive tactile modular map of an interior is being developed at the Department of Computer Graphics and Interaction at the CTU FEE. This thesis presents an extension beyond maps using the same baseboard electronics. We have analysed a broad range of aids that vision-impaired people use. At first, we focused on education, and later we moved to entertainment and life-enhancing tools. Based on our findings, we have seen a gap between simple physical tools and specialised electronic gadgets. Following the iterative design process of UCD, we have created an extension board called Double Braille Module. The latest iteration has excellent tactile feedback and two Braille six-dots on the top. This one well-crafted module lets us combine Braille education and a Memory game that helps with the practice. Furthermore, we prepared many more game data sets for the users. Participants' favourites were the Famous Czech voices. Lastly, this module is a talking signs system simulator. The primary response to a touch interaction is text to speech voice synthetisation, which quality was crucial for the project. We have conducted a usability experiment with members of the target groups. We started with part of vision-impaired active adults. Results are quite a success, and besides minor errors, we collected only future enhancements.