The Moose: A Haptic User Interface for Blind Persons

(O'Modhrain, M. Sile and Gillespie, R. Brent)

ABSTRACT

This paper presents our work to date on a haptic interface whose immediate aim is to provide access for blind sound engineers to the graphics-based computer interfaces currently found in digital sound studios. We describe the hardware and supporting software which together reinterprets a Microsoft Windows screen for the haptic senses.

With a haptic interface, screen objects such as buttons, sliders and pull-down menus are presented mechanically to the user's haptic senses (kinesthetic and tactile), where they can be felt, located, identified, and, through the use of the same device for input, activated. We have built a prototype two-axis device which operates much like a mouse, except that it is also able to move under its own power. Using this prototype device we have already implemented an interface for Microsoft Windows and have proven the feasibility and usefulness of the haptic interface approach for non-visual computer access. We expect that haptic interface devices will become standard computer interface tools, supplementing the visual presentation with haptic presentation for all users. A more holistic presentation of information will be made by the computer. This approach is, we believe, particularly valuable in the design of application interfaces for digital audio editing. We have implemented a prototype sound file editing application in which the sound waveform is presented haptically as a contoured groove within the workspace.