RoboGraphics: Dynamic Tactile Graphics Powered by Mobile Robots

In the Braille Assistant app, mobile robots form a large, tactile version of the letter “Q” (â Ÿ) in Braille.

Tactile graphics are a common way to present information to people with vision impairments. Tactile graphics can be used to explore a broad range of static visual content but aren’t well suited to representing animation or interactivity. We introduce a new approach to creating dynamic tactile graphics that combines a touch screen tablet, static tactile overlays, and small mobile robots. We introduce a prototype system called RoboGraphics and several proof-of-concept applications. We evaluated our prototype with seven participants with varying levels of vision, comparing the RoboGraphics approach to a flat screen, audio-tactile interface. Our results show that dynamic tactile graphics can help visually-impaired participants explore data quickly and accurately.

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Associated Researchers

Publications

Darren Guinness, Annika Muehlbradt, Daniel Szafir, and Shaun K. Kane. 2019. "". In: Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '19). (Pittsburgh, PA, Oct. 28, 2019).