Legge, G.E. – VEMI Lab

Indoor Airport Wayfinding for Blind and Visually Impaired Travelers

eblackwood — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 15:42:08 +0000

By conservative estimates, more than 4 million Americans have impaired vision, with the prevalence rising as the population ages. Wayfinding in complex public spaces, such as airport terminals, poses a major challenge for this group and adversely affects their mobility and quality of life.

Wayfinding refers to the ability to find one’s way to a desired destination. In an airport, critical wayfinding tasks include finding and passing through security, reaching a departure gate, traveling between gates to make a connecting flight, finding the baggage claim and ground transportation (taxi, bus, or rail), and finding relief stations for service animals. These wayfinding tasks must often be accomplished under time pressure. Other important wayfinding tasks include finding bathrooms, restaurants, and ticketing kiosks.

This project had three objectives: (1) to describe the demographics and wide range of visual impairment and wayfinding needs within the target population; (2) to explore challenges and solutions related to specific factors affecting airport wayfinding by visually impaired people; and (3) to develop three types of recommendations for enhancing accessibility of airport terminals: those having a broad consensus and which can be implemented in the near future, those requiring consultation with stakeholders for which alternative solutions need discussion, and those requiring technical research and development.

This technical note identifies best practices and recommendations for potentially viable solutions. This technical note is also intended to encourage discussion and raise questions for a broad audience including Federal Aviation Administration staff, airport administration, airline staff, people with interests in accessible transportation systems, vision rehabilitation specialists, visually impaired travelers, and members of the general public with an interest in accessibility.

Ultimately, solutions could be found through collaboration and consensus among stakeholders. Improved wayfinding and other forms of accessibility within airports require communication and shared responsibility of two major groups—those providing airport services and the users of those services.

Citation:

Legge, G.E., Downey, C., Giudice, N.A. & Tjan, B.S. (2016). Indoor Airport Wayfinding for Blind and Visually Impaired Travelers. Report to the Federal Aviation Administration, No. DOT/Faa/TC-TN16/54. http://www.airporttech.tc.faa.gov/Download/Airport-Safety-Papers-Publications-Detail/dt/Detail/ItemID/572/Indoor-Airport-Wayfinding-for-Blind-and-Visually-Impaired-Travelers

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Designing Media for Visually-Impaired Users of Refreshable Touch Displays: Possibilities and Pitfalls

eblackwood — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 17:46:51 +0000

Abstract:

This paper discusses issues of importance to designers of media for visually impaired users. The paper considers the influence of human factors on effectiveness of presentation as well as the strengths and weaknesses of tactile, vibrotactile, static pins, haptic, force feedback, and multimodal methods of rendering maps, graphs and models. The authors, all of whom are visually impaired researchers in this domain, present findings from their own work and work of many others who have contributed to the current understanding of how to prepare and render images for both hard-copy and technology-mediated presentation of Braille and tangible graphics.

Citation:

O‘Modhrain, S., Giudice, N. A., Gardner, J. A., & Legge, G. E. (2015). Designing media for visually-impaired users of refreshable touch displays: Possibilities and pitfalls. Transactions on Haptics. 8(3), 248-257.

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Spatial learning and navigation using a virtual verbal display

eblackwood — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:00:30 +0000

Abstract: We report on three experiments that investigate the efficacy of a new type of interface called a virtual verbal display (VVD) for nonvisual learning and navigation of virtual environments (VEs). Although verbal information has been studied for routeguidance, little is known about the use of context-sensitive, speech-based displays (e.g., the VVD) for supporting free exploration and wayfinding behavior. During training, participants used the VVD (Experiments I and II) or a visual display (Experiment III) to search the VEs and find four hidden target locations. At test, all participants performed a route-finding task in the corresponding real environment, navigating with vision (Experiments I and III) or from verbal descriptions (Experiment II). Training performance between virtual display modes was comparable, but wayfinding in the real environment was worse after VVD learning than visual learning, regardless of the testing modality. Our results support the efficacy of the VVD for searching computer-based environments but indicate a difference in the cognitive maps built up between verbal and visual learning, perhaps due to lack of physical movement in the VVD.

Citation: Giudice, N.A., Bakdash, J.Z., Legge, G.E., & Roy, R. (2010). Spatial learning and navigation using a virtual verbal display. ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, 7(1), 3:1-3:22 (Article 3).

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Blind navigation and the role of technology

eblackwood — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:00:03 +0000

Citation: Giudice, N.A., & Legge, G.E. (2008). Blind navigation and the role of technology. In A. Helal, M. Mokhtari & B. Abdulrazak (Eds.), Engineering handbook of smart technology for aging, disability, and independence (pp. 479-500): John Wiley & Sons.

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Learning building layouts with non-geometric visual information: The effects of visual impairment and age

eblackwood — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:00:47 +0000

Abstract: Previous studies suggest that humans rely on geometric visual information (hallway structure) rather than non-geometric visual information (eg doors, signs, and lighting) for acquiring cognitive maps of novel indoor layouts. In this study we asked whether visual impairment and age affect reliance on non-geometric visual information for layout learning. We tested three groups of participantsöyounger (550 years of age) normally sighted; older (50 ^ 70 years of age) normally sighted; and low-vision (people with heterogeneous forms of visual impairment ranging in age from 18 to 67 years). Participants learned target locations in building layouts using four presentation modes: a desktop virtual environment (VE) displaying only geometric cues (sparse VE); a VE displaying both geometric and non-geometric cues (photorealistic VE); a map; and a real building. Layout knowledge was assessed by map drawing and by asking participants to walk to specified targets in the real space. Results indicate that low-vision and older normally sighted participants relied on additional non-geometric information to accurately learn layouts. In conclusion, visual impairment and age may result in reduced perceptual and/or memory processing that makes it difficult to learn layouts without non-geometric visual information.

Citation: Kalia, A., Legge, G.E., & Giudice, N.A. (2008). Learning building layouts with non-geometric visual information: The effects of visual impairment and age. Perception, 37(11), 1677-1699.

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Wayfinding with words: Spatial learning and navigation using dynamically-updated verbal descriptions

eblackwood — Tue, 01 May 2007 16:00:04 +0000

Abstract: This work investigates whether large-scale indoor layouts can be learned and navigated nonvisually, using verbal descriptions of layout geometry that are updated, e.g. contingent on a participant’s location in a building. In previous research, verbal information has been used to facilitate route following, not to support free exploration and wayfinding. Our results with blindfolded-sighted participants demonstrate that accurate learning and wayfinding performance is possible using verbal descriptions and that it is sufficient to describe only local geometric detail. In addition, no differences in learning or navigation performance were observed between the verbal study and a control study using visual input. Verbal learning was also compared to the performance of a random walk model, demonstrating that human search behavior is not based on chance decision-making. However, the model performed more like human participants after adding a constraint that biased it against reversing direction.

Citation: Giudice, N.A., Bakdash, J.Z., & Legge, G.E. (2007). Wayfinding with words: Spatial learning and navigation using dynamically-updated verbal descriptions. Psychological Research, 71(3), 347-58.

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Digital Sign System for Indoor Wayfinding for the Visually Impaired

eblackwood — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 18:09:11 +0000

Abstract:

Mobility challenges and independent travel are major concerns for blind and visually impaired pedestrians [1][2]. Navigation and wayfinding in unfamiliar indoor environments are particularly challenging because blind pedestrians do not have ready access to building maps, signs and other orienting devices. The development of assistive technologies to aid wayfinding is hampered by the lack of a reliable and cost-efficient method for providing location information in an indoor environment. Here we describe the design and implementation of a digital sign system based on low-cost passive retro-reflective tags printed with specially designed patterns that can be readily detected and identified by a hand-held camera and machine-vision system. Performance of the prototype showed the tag detection/recognition system could cope with the real-world environment of a typical building.

Citation:

Tjan, B.S., Beckmann, P.J., Roy, R., Giudice, N.A., & Legge, G.E. (2005). Digital sign system for indoor wayfinding for the visually impaired. Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) – Workshops. 3, 30A. San Diego, CA.

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