Study of an Interface using Virtual Haptic Sensing for the Visually Impaired

• Project/Area Number: 25280097
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Kansei informatics
• Research Institution: Tsukuba University of Technology
• Principal Investigator: TATSUMI Hisayuki 筑波技術大学, 保健科学部, 教授 (30188271)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MIYAKAWA Masahiro 筑波技術大学, 名誉教授 (70248748) ; SEKITA Iwao 筑波技術大学, 保健科学部, 教授 (40357322)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): MURAI Yasuyuki 日本薬科大学, 薬学部, 准教授 (30373054)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2015)
• Budget Amount: ¥17,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥13,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,050,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥3,640,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥840,000); Fiscal Year 2013: ¥13,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥10,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,000,000)
• Keywords: 視覚障がい / 仮想触力覚 / 触知ＶＲ / 複合現実 / 白杖歩行支援 / 環境認知 / 感性情報学 / 視覚障害補償 / 疑似触力覚 / 仮想現実感 / 認知支援 / 環境把握

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Creating a virtual reality (VR) by combining visual information and pseudo touch sensing is studied widely. Being strictly detached from visual information, the visually impaired are off from the benefit of VR technology. Our study here is the development of HAPTIC VR TECHNOLOGY for aiding them. We establish a new method of accessing VR space through "virtual white cane". Our VR sensing method consists of the following haptic sensing process at the fingers of the user's hand on which "data-glove" (force feedback device) is worn. In our VR setting, we have implemented two objects: "studded paving blocks on the pavement" and "white-cane" with a "hand" which manipulate it in search for the blocks on the pavement. One of user's hand wearing the data-glove on it is superposed on the virtual hand by the system. Thus the search by touching on the pavement by the white-cane in the VR space is successfully conveyed to the actual hand of the user via data-glove.

Research Products

• [Int'l Joint Research] レユニオン大学（Universite de La Reunion）/リヨン大学（Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1）(フランス)
• [Int'l Joint Research] モントリオール大学（Universite de Montreal）(カナダ)
• [Journal Article] Semirigid Systems of Three Equivalence Relations (2016)
  • Author(s): Delhomme C., Miyakawa M., Pouzet M., Rosenberg I. G., Tatsumi H.
  • Journal Title: Journal of Multiple-Valued Logic and Soft Computing Volume: 印刷中
  • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research / Acknowledgement Compliant
• [Journal Article] Cane Walk in the Virtual Reality Space using Virtual Haptic Sensing, --Toward Developing Haptic VR Technologies for the Visually Impaired-- (2015)
  • Author(s): Tatsumi H., Murai Y., Sekita I., Tokumasu S., Miyakawa M.
  • Journal Title: Proc. IEEE 2015 Int. Conf. on Systems, Man and Cybernetics Volume: INSPEC Accession No.: 15718579 Pages: 2360-2365
  • DOI: 10.1109/smc.2015.413
  • Peer Reviewed / Acknowledgement Compliant
• [Journal Article] Synchronization and Sharing Information of Tactile Map with Online Map, --An Online Navigation Tool for the Visually Impaired-- (2015)
  • Author(s): Tatsumi H., Murai Y., Sekita I., Miyakawa M.
  • Journal Title: Proc. IEEE 2015 Int. Conf. on Systems, Man and Cybernetics Volume: INSPEC Accession No.: 15727648 Pages: 2354-2359
  • DOI: 10.1109/smc.2015.412
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] 視覚障がい支援のための疑似触力覚の適用 (2014)
  • Author(s): 巽久行，村井保之，関田巌，宮川正弘
  • Journal Title: 筑波技術大学テクノレポート Volume: 22(1) Pages: 6-10
  • NAID: 120005522025
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Acknowledgement Compliant
• [Journal Article] On a Learning-Science System Supporting Visually Impaired Students via the Haptic Device (2013)
  • Author(s): Takashi SUZUKI, Tomoyuki ARAKI, Katsuhiro KAWAI, Yasuyuki MURAI, Hisayuki TATSUMI
  • Journal Title: Proc. 2013 IEEE Int. Conf. on Systems, Man and Cybernetics Volume: SMC2013 Pages: 4629-4634
  • DOI: 10.1109/smc.2013.788
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Presentation] 触知VR上での仮想把持感による白杖歩行について (2015)
  • Author(s): 巽久行, 村井保之, 関田巌, 徳増眞司, 宮川正弘
  • Organizer: 第14回情報科学技術フォーラム（FIT2015）
  • Place of Presentation: 愛媛大学（愛媛県・松山市）
  • Year and Date: 2015-09-15
• [Presentation] 触指位置追跡による図形イメージ獲得過程の理解 (2015)
  • Author(s): 巽久行, 村井保之, 福永克己, 関田巌, 宮川正弘
  • Organizer: 第14回情報科学技術フォーラム
  • Place of Presentation: 愛媛大学（愛媛県・松山市）
  • Year and Date: 2015-09-15
• [Presentation] 白杖歩行のための触知ＶＲの開発 (2014)
  • Author(s): 巽久行，村井保之，関田巌，宮川正弘
  • Organizer: 第37回多値論理フォーラム
  • Place of Presentation: 関西大学（大阪府吹田市）
  • Year and Date: 2014-09-13 – 2014-09-14
• [Presentation] 疑似触力覚を用いた複合現実感による白杖歩行について (2014)
  • Author(s): 巽久行，村井保之，関田巌，宮川正弘
  • Organizer: 第30回ヒューマンインタフェースシンポジウム（HIS2014）
  • Place of Presentation: 京都工芸繊維大学（京都府京都市）
  • Year and Date: 2014-09-09 – 2014-09-12
• [Presentation] 視覚障がい支援のための仮想触力覚の利用 (2014)
  • Author(s): 巽久行，村井保之，関田巌，徳増眞司，宮川正弘
  • Organizer: 第13回情報科学技術フォーラム（FIT2014）
  • Place of Presentation: 筑波大学（茨城県つくば市）
  • Year and Date: 2014-09-03 – 2014-09-05
• [Presentation] 仮想白杖把持感の生成 ― 視覚障がい者の歩行支援 ― (2014)
  • Author(s): 巽久行，村井保之，関田巌，徳増眞司，宮川正弘
  • Organizer: 第30回ファジィシステムシンポジウム（FSS2014）
  • Place of Presentation: 高知城ホール（高知県高知市）
  • Year and Date: 2014-09-01 – 2014-09-03
• [Presentation] 仮想的な触力覚を利用した視覚障がい支援の提案 (2013)
  • Author(s): 巽久行，村井保之，関田巌，徳増眞司，宮川正弘
  • Organizer: 第12回情報科学技術フォーラム（FIT2013）
  • Place of Presentation: 鳥取大学・鳥取キャンパス（鳥取県鳥取市）
• [Presentation] 触知ＶＲ技術による視覚障がい支援への挑戦 (2013)
  • Author(s): 巽久行，村井保之，関田巌，宮川正弘
  • Organizer: 第29回ファジィシステムシンポジウム（FSS2013）
  • Place of Presentation: 大阪国際大学・枚方キャンパス（大阪府枚方市）
• [Remarks] 視覚障がい支援のための疑似触力覚の適用
  • URL: http://www.tsukuba-tech.ac.jp/repo/dspace/handle/10460/1267