A cheap, portable haptic device for a method to relay 2-D texture-enriched graphical information to individuals who are visually impaired

摘要

This paper considers the development of a haptic device needed for a method of relaying 2-D texture enriched graphical information. The focus here is on the conversion of the optical, color-based representation of the formatted diagram, which is efficient for storage and distribution, to its haptic texture enriched form. For this, the device has two main components, an RGB color sensor and piezoelectric actuator, mounted in a casing that is wrapped around the finger. The resulting device has a spatial sensitivity (2mm) comparable to natural touch (1.0mm), a temporal frequency bandwidth of 1 to 200 Hz, and can be used to output a variety of textures. The point contact device developed can also easily be expanded to the use of multiple devices on multiple fingerpads, while remaining affordable (100) and portable (500g).