On a Learning-Science System Supporting Visually Impaired Students via the Haptic Device

We have proposed a system, referred to as HALS, which supports visually impaired students in learning science and mathematics by using a haptic device [1]. This article describes the second stage towards HALS. The basic idea of the system is, by taking good advantage of the haptic device, to provide them with haptic perceptions of scientific things such as 3D objects and motions of a body and, through the experience, to enable them to have images of these things in their mind. We expect that such an image of natural things promotes better understanding of science. In this work, we realize partially the above ideas and develop several models which produce virtual things visually handicapped students can perceive by means of the device. Some models produce planar and spatial geometrical objects and others do moving bodies. The efficiency of these models were examined by blind undergraduate students. We finally address merits and demerits of our system, and clarify the points to be improved.