Filling the Gaps for Indoor Wayfinding
2009; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 103; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1177/0145482x0910300406
ISSN1559-1476
Autores Tópico(s)Spatial Cognition and Navigation
ResumoOrientation and wayfinding are critical skills for successful mobility of people with visual impairments. The inability to perform these skills successfully may result in a person becoming lost, injured, and discouraged from further mobility. At times, it may be impossible to maintain orientation. The person may temporarily travel without cues until it is possible to reestablish the location on his or her internal cognitive map. One method of improving mobility is to develop assistive technology that fills in the when available orientation cues are lacking and that intelligently augments the senses by providing relevant value-added information. Relevance is key to this issue. Any provision of nonrelevant information makes the task more difficult and is perceived by the traveler as requiring excess effort and time. When orienting to a travelers use a combination of cues, including those provided by residual vision, sounds, smells, temperature sensations, air movement, and proprioceptive-haptic sensations. Most travelers have some residual vision, and although that vision may be only the perception of light and dark, it can be useful for finding cues that are not perceptible with the other senses. Viewing the interactions that travelers who are visually impaired have with the environment and then augmenting that information could hypothetically help fill gaps in information for them. Augmenting either orientation information or wayfinding success should reduce the travelers' time and effort. USING CYBER CRUMBS TO FILL THE GAPS We conducted a pilot study that examined specific methods of augmenting orientation information. The purpose was to determine the types of information that travelers desire and how that information may be best controlled, selected, and presented dynamically, according to individual preferences. To perform this research, we developed and evaluated an indoor technological infrastructure called Crumbs. Using a sticky backing, these Cyber Crumbs are placed at any location where a particular crumb of information may be useful. Each Cyber Crumb transmits up to 128 characters of programmable text using Infra-Red Digital Association coding. An electronic badge worn by the person (see Figure 1) receives this information over a distance of approximately 12 feet. A speech synthesizer in the badge converts received text to verbal messages. The badge also contains two buttons: a Mute button and a Repeat button. Any undesired information can be quickly muted, while information of interest can be repeated if it is not understood. No other interface functionality was implemented in this initial prototype, because the intent was to have the participants provide the essential information needed for further refinements of the design. METHOD Testing protocols Of the 15 participants, 10 were visually impaired (were blind or had low vision) and 5 were sighted. The 5 sighted persons were included to establish a frame of reference for the difficulty of performing the task. A mobility instructor established two comparable test routes (A and B), each 340 feet long, starting at an elevator, taking 9 turns through an unfamiliar area of the Atlanta VA Medical Center, and ending at a specific office. Along each the participants passed a set of restrooms where they were asked to identify (touch) the door matching their gender. One route acted as a route, and one acted as a route. Before a participant traveled a baseline the mobility instructor described the route and answered any questions the participant may have had. Before a participant traveled a prototype the mobility instructor spent 10 minutes teaching the participant how to use the device. The 5 sighted participants did not use Cyber Crumbs; they traveled both routes using visual signage to find their way. To reduce learning effects and the effect of differences in routes across the participants, we randomly selected Routes A and B as either baseline or prototype routes and further randomly selected the routes to be either the first or second route that was traveled. …
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