Quick-Glance and In-Depth exploration of a tabletop map for visually impaired people

Sandra Bardot (1, 2, 3) , Anke Brock (4) , Marcos Serrano (3, 1, 2) , Christophe Jouffrais (3, 1)

1 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
2 PRES Université de Toulouse
3 IRIT-ELIPSE - Etude de L’Interaction Personne SystèmE
4 Potioc - Popular interaction with 3d content

Interactive tactile maps provide visually impaired people with accessible geographic information. However, when these maps are presented on large tabletops, tactile exploration without sight is long and tedious due to the size of the surface. In this paper we present a novel approach to speed up the process of exploring tabletop maps in the absence of vision. Our approach mimics the visual processing of a map and consists in two steps. First, the Quick-Glance step allows creating a global mental representation of the map by using mid-air gestures. Second, the In-Depth step allows users to reach Points of Interest with appropriate hand guidance onto the map. In this paper we present the design and development of a prototype combining a smartwatch and a tactile surface for Quick-Glance and In-Depth interactive exploration of a map.

Mots clés: spatial cognition; accessibility; smartwatch; visual impairment; Map exploration; tabletop

Domaines: Interface homme-machine [cs.HC]

Sandra Bardot, Anke Brock, Marcos Serrano, Christophe Jouffrais. Quick-Glance and In-Depth exploration of a tabletop map for visually impaired people. IHM'14, 26e conférence francophone sur l'Interaction Homme-Machine, Oct 2014, Lille, France. ACM, pp.165-170, 2014, ⟨10.1145/2670444.2670465⟩. ⟨hal-01090438⟩