Exploring Geometric Shapes with Touch

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel tactile guidance technique using directional cues with a pin array to help visually impaired users explore geometric shapes, comparing its effectiveness in unimanual and bimanual conditions.

Contribution

The paper presents a new tactile exploration method based on directional cues, offering an alternative to traditional pin-based shape exploration techniques.

Findings

Fewer errors in unimanual condition compared to bimanual.

No significant difference in exploration speed between conditions.

User confidence remained consistent across conditions.

Abstract

We propose a new technique to help users to explore geometric shapes without vision. This technique is based on a guidance using directional cues with a pin array. This is an alternative to the usual technique that consists of raising the pins corresponding to dark pixels around the cursor. In this paper we compare the exploration of geometric shapes with our new technique in unimanual and bimanual conditions. The users made fewer errors in unimanual condition than in bimanual condition. However they did not explore the shapes more quickly and there was no difference in confidence in their answer.