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Multimodal collaboration environment for inclusion of visually impaired children

Projektbeschreibung


eInclusion
Fostering hands-on learning for visually impaired

New technology developed and field tested by European researchers could help blind and visually impaired children better integrate into mainstream schools.

A team of nine universities, two research centres and two enterprises came together in project MICOLE to create a system to support collaboration between visually impaired and sighted children. The system they designed allows the children to use computers to explore data, communicate and be creative while working together.

Because, in practice, the main place for sighted and visually impaired children to meet and work together is in schools, the scenarios developed by the researchers, and the applications they chose are designed for classroom use.

The researchers consulted and collaborated with teachers and either tested the applications in schools during normal classes or in a separate room outside of normal hours.

All pull together

The tests were made as realistic as possible with sighted and visually impaired students working together to learn something or accomplish a school task. The researchers used the same test procedure in six participating schools, each in a different country.

There were also tests done where visually impaired children worked individually and with teachers, using the collaborative system to guide and help the pupils with tasks and solutions.

Overall, the researchers evaluated five applications to check their individual performances and to ensure their compatibility with the MICOLE platform developed by the project. The applications all met both criteria, and received positive feedback from students and teachers.

The first of these applications was AHEAD, the Audio-Haptic Drawing Editor and Explorer in two dimensions. AHEAD employs cutting-edge haptic technology, which allows the user to interact with a computer via the sense of touch.

Using a phantom pen

AHEAD is a general-purpose graphics editor and explorer that can be used both for examining prepared drawings and for creating drawings. Sighted students can control the software with a mouse, while blind students use a stylus called ‘PHANToM’.

This is a special device, connected to a robot arm, that makes it possible to feel virtual objects in three dimensions. The user holds it like an ordinary pen. It can be moved in all directions and gives resistance when it touches a virtual object.

Another application is the Solar System, which as the name implies allows visually impaired pupils to learn about our solar system in collaboration with sighted pupils.

The PHANToM stylus allows the user to explore the orbits of the planets. A speech synthesiser describes which planet’s orbit is in question. A combination of touch and speech also allows the pupil to explore the surface of each planet.

Now for bit of fun

The project’s Electric Circuits application uses the same type of technology to allow users to explore electric circuit schematics, while the Mathematical Working Environment (MAWEN) software is a scientific documents editor.

Blind students use the Braille Mathematical Code application while their sighted partners use standard graphics as they work together on a document.

Finally, for a bit of light relief, there is the King Pong game, which takes account of different levels of visual impairment and can be played by one player and a computer or by two players.

The work in the MICOLE project aims at developing a system that supports collaboration, data exploration, communication andcreativity of visually impaired and sighted children. In addition to the immediate value as a tool the system will have societal implications through improved inclusion of the visually disabled in education, work, and society in general. While the main activity is the construction of the system, several other supporting activities are needed, especially empirical research of collaborative and cross-modal haptic interfaces for and visually impaired children. Empirical experiments are carried out to find out how to use different senses to partially replace missing visual capabilities, especially in tasks that are central in the system being constructed. MICOLE includes two Work Packages with different empirical foci to feed critical knowledge into the central iterative construction-evaluation cycle of the system development and evaluation WorkPackages. The project begins with stakeholder involvement and requirements gathering tasks. The intended users are involved throughout the project in participatory design and evaluations. The consortium has been set up with partners that have existing contacts and experience in working with local and national organizations for the visually disabled to facilitate user involvement.The software architecture and applications will be multimodal, that is, they make use of hearing and touch to complement different levels of visual disability. The project participants include European and world leaders in the area of haptics and multimodal human-computer interaction to ensure that the best possible expertise is used. In addition to the system built in MICOLE, the project produces theoretical and empirical results and guidelines for developers generally improving the conditions for inclusion and participation of the visually disabled in the Information Society.

Wissenschaftliches Gebiet

Programm/Programme

Thema/Themen

Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung

FP6-2003-IST-2
Andere Projekte für diesen Aufruf anzeigen

Finanzierungsplan

STREP - Specific Targeted Research Project

Koordinator

TAMPEREEN YLIOPISTO
EU-Beitrag
€ 430 179,00
Adresse
Kalevantie 4
33014 TAMPERE
Finnland

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Aktivitätstyp
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
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Keine Daten

Beteiligte (8)

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Letzte Aktualisierung: 1 April 2017

Mein Booklet

Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/511592/de

European Union, 2024