skip to main content
10.1145/2559206.2574782acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PageschiConference Proceedingsconference-collections
short-paper

HamsaTouch: feel the world through your palm

Published: 26 April 2014 Publication History

Abstract

We developed a novel tactile vision substitution system (TVSS) for the people with visual impairments. The system is composed of an electro-tactile display with 512 electrodes, the same number of optical sensors beneath each electrode, and a smartphone with a camera and an LCD. The smartphone acquires the surrounding view, conducts image processing and displays the image on the LCD. The image is captured by the optical sensors and converted to a tactile image by the electro-tactile display. While the concept of the TVSS is classic, combining the commonly available mobile device and electro-tactile display enables a low cost yet powerful and compact system. Furthermore, optical communication architecture enables an open development environment, and it can be independently used as a paper-reading tool without the smartphone.

References

[1]
Bach-y Rita, P., Collins, C. C., Saunders, F., White, B., Scadden, L. Vision substitution by tactile image projection. Nature (1969), 221: 963--964.
[2]
Bach-y-Rita, P., Kaczmarek, K. A., Tyler, M. E., Garcia-Lara, J. Form perception with a 49-point electrotactile stimulus array on the tongue. J. Rehabil. Res. Dev. (1998), 35: 427--430.
[3]
Kajimoto, H., Kanno, Y., Tachi, S. Forehead electro-tactile display for vision substitution. In Proc. EuroHaptics (2006).
[4]
Arnoldussen, A., & Fletcher, D. C. Visual perception for the blind: The BrainPort vision device. Retinal Physician (2012), 9(1): 32--34.
[5]
Akhter, S., Mirsalahuddin, J., Marquina, F. B., Islam, S. A smartphone-based haptic vision substitution system for the blind. In Proc. Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conf. (2011), 1--2.
[6]
Vera, P., Zenteno, D., Salas. J. A smartphone-based virtual white cane, Pattern Anal. Applic. (2013).
[7]
Sugimoto, M., Kodama, K., Nakamura, A., Kojima M., Inami, M. A display-based tracking system: display-based computing for measurement systems. In Proc. 17th Int. Conf. Artificial Reality and Telexistence (2007), 31--38.
[8]
Nojima, T., Ooide, Y., Kawaguchi, H. Hairlytop interface: an interactive surface display comprised of hair-like soft actuators. In Proc. World Haptics Conference (2013), 431--435.
[9]
Linvill, G., Bliss, J. C. A direct translation reading aid for the blind. In Proc. IEEE, (1966), 54(1): 40--51.
[10]
Kajimoto, H., Inami, M., Kawakami, N., Tachi, S. SmartTouch: electric skin to touch the untouchable. IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications Magazine (2004), 36--43.
[11]
Johansson, R. S., Vallbo, A. B. Tactile sensory coding in the glabrous skin of the human hand, Trends in Neurosciences (1983), 6: 27--32.
[12]
OpenCV4Android SDK http://docs.opencv.org/doc/tutorials/introduction/android_binary_package/O4A_SDK.html.

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
CHI EA '14: CHI '14 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
April 2014
2620 pages
ISBN:9781450324748
DOI:10.1145/2559206
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 26 April 2014

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. electro-tactile display
  2. optical communication
  3. reading aid
  4. smartphone
  5. tactile vision substitution system
  6. visually impaired

Qualifiers

  • Short-paper

Conference

CHI '14
Sponsor:
CHI '14: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
April 26 - May 1, 2014
Ontario, Toronto, Canada

Acceptance Rates

CHI EA '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 1,000 of 3,200 submissions, 31%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 6,164 of 23,696 submissions, 26%

Upcoming Conference

CHI 2025
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
April 26 - May 1, 2025
Yokohama , Japan

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • 0
    Total Citations
  • 188
    Total Downloads
  • Downloads (Last 12 months)2
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
Reflects downloads up to 01 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

View Options

Login options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media