Touch tracking analysis for graphics image acquisition by the visually impaired: Toward understanding graphical image creation by touch-sensing

摘要

One of the problems regarding graphics for blind individual is that we have few data on how he (she) acquires graphical information through touching. In this article, we propose a method of tracking the touch point of his (her) fingertip on graphics material using cameras (an analog of eye-tracking) for analyzing the image acquisition process. We exhibit the method on an edge-outlined tactile picture of a flower and show that it yields basic features of the original outlined flower by an experiment relying on a visually impaired subject. As a linked yet remotely material in Section 3.1 we describe our other application of online tactile map in which we have introduced the idea of sharing positional information between touching a tactile picture and looking into a graphical picture using a tracking technology.