Haptic Emulation of Games: Haptic Sudoku for the Blind

摘要

For blind persons, information is often presented through substitute media. We explore the possibility of emulating visual perception through haptic perception completely using a new haptic display and using games as a paradigm. We decsribe an implementation of Sudoku which utilizes the capabilities of the display: representing the full Sudoku square in its natural form; entering numbers and notes in the boxes of the square; emulating visual scanning for information through scanning by touch; interacting by finger movement (gestures). The only non-haptic component consists of sounds played to signal the outcome of actions. This demonstrates the advantages of the planar touch-sensitive refreshable haptic display when compared with other interaction modes for blind persons.