A Haptic Walk-Guide simulator for the visually impaired - A prototype -

We describe a HAptic Walk-Guide simulator (HAWG) which gives a simulator-training of an indoor pathway finding for a visually impaired person through haptic recognition. The purpose of the walk-guide simulator is to present user environmental information along the path by haptic means in order to help him create a cognitive map of the environment. In this report the emphasis is placed on the following extension of the system implemented in the latest version: 1. When encountered with an object, verbal description of the object is given so that he can know his current location and position; 2. To help efficient training various features are implemented including: teacher-student (master-slave) mode for dual haptic devices and moving in the layout by inputting arrow keys. The latter facility makes the user record the moves in a file; later, it can be recovered from the file so that he can repeat the training; 3. From one layout (say, from a hallway) the user can transit into another layout (into a room) continually. We have also incorporated a real-time tactile graphic display in HAWG in order to augment the possible drawback of extreme locality of the haptic sensing.