Evaluation and Development of Tactile Walking Surface Indicators useful in Aged Society

• Project/Area Number: 26350665
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering
• Research Institution: Okayama Prefectural University
• Principal Investigator: MASAKI TAUCHI 岡山県立大学, 保健福祉学部, 特命研究員 (00075425)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 中村 孝文 岡山県立大学, 保健福祉学部, 教授 (70144061)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
• Budget Amount: ¥4,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,050,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
• Keywords: 視覚障害者誘導用ブロック / 点字ブロック / 視覚障害者 / 高齢者 / 車椅子 / 振動 / 転倒 / つまづき / 線状ブロック / 点状ブロック / 単独移動 / 車いす / シルバーカー / 歩行速度 / 白杖 / 歩行補助車 / 加速度計 / 不快感 / オリエンテーション / モビリティ / 足底 / 躓き

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Since the tactile walking surface indicators (TWSIs) for the blind and visually impaired (BVIPs) were developed in 1967, their height has been set to 5 mm or more even after the enactment of TWSIs' standardization in 2001. This was to compensate for the detection and discrimination of linear and dot-like protrusions of braille blocks in various installation environments. However, it is thought that aged society is reached, and its height can hinder the elderly walking and cause falls. Therefore, we lowered the protrusion height of the TWSIs and searched for whether the user can detect with the sole of the foot or the cane, and the condition that elderly persons or wheelchair's passing on TWSIs does not have much sense of incongruity. The result of the experiments indicated that the height of 3.5 to 4.0 mm was found to be necessary to compromise both BVIPs and elderly pedestrians.

Research Products

• [Presentation] Detection of Bar-Shape Tactile Walking Surface Indicators of Various Height by a Variety of Cane Tips (2017)
  • Author(s): MASAKI TAUCHI，TAKABUN NAKAMURA, JIRO TAKATO
  • Organizer: 16th International Mobility Conference
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] The relationship between the degree of curvature of tactile guidance pathways and their tracebility by blindfolded pedestrians (2015)
  • Author(s): Masaki Tauchi, Takabun Nakamura, Jinro Takato
  • Organizer: TRANSED2015
  • Place of Presentation: Lisbon, Portugal
  • Year and Date: 2015-07-28 – 2015-07-31
• [Presentation] Traceability of the cane tip for the tactile walking surface indicator (2015)
  • Author(s): Takabun NAKAMURA，Masaki TAUCHI And Jinro Takato
  • Organizer: IMC15
  • Place of Presentation: カナダ，モントリオール
  • Year and Date: 2015-07-28
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] The Relationship Between the Degree of Curvature of Tactile Guidance Pathways and Their Tracability by Blindfolded Pedestrians (2015)
  • Author(s): Masaki TAUCHI, Takabun NAKAMURA And Jinro Takato
  • Organizer: TRANSED2015
  • Place of Presentation: ポルトガル，リスボン
  • Year and Date: 2015-07-06
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Effects of shape and structure of various cane tips on the tracing accuracy and the generation of vibration (2015)
  • Author(s): Takabun Nakamura, Masaki Tauchi, Jinro Takato
  • Organizer: International Mobility Conference 15
  • Place of Presentation: Montreal, Canada
  • Year and Date: 2015-07-04 – 2015-07-10