Assessing haptic properties for data representation

Wall, S.A. and Brewster, S.A. (2003) Assessing haptic properties for data representation. In: SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 5-10 April 2003, pp. 858-859. ISBN 1581136307 (doi: 10.1145/765891.766034)

Abstract

This paper describes the results of a series of forced choice design experiments investigating the discrimination of material properties using a PHANToM haptic device. Research has shown that the PHANToM is effective at displaying graphical information to blind people, but the techniques used so far have been very simple. Our experiments showed that subjects' discrimination of friction was significantly better than that of stiffness or the spatial period of sinusoidal textures, over the range of stimuli investigated. Thus, it is proposed that graphical data could be made more easily accessible to blind users by scaling the data values to friction rather than shape or size, as in traditional bar charts.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Additional Information: This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution.
• Keywords: PHANToM, blind, discrimination, haptic, material properties, visually impaired
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Brewster, Professor Stephen
• Authors: Wall, S.A., and Brewster, S.A.
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science; Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Publisher: ACM Press
• ISBN: 1581136307
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2003 ACM Press
• First Published: First published in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher