Proposal for Synchronization and Sharing Information between Tactile and Online Maps

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25560101
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Educational technology
• 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)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): MURAI Yasuyuki 日本薬科大学, 薬学部, 准教授 (30373054) ; SEKITA Iwao 筑波技術大学, 保健科学部, 教授 (40357322)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 視覚障害補償 / 触地図 / オンライン地図 / 情報共有化 / 移動支援

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We describe a method of sharing information between a tactile-map on paper and an online-map on the information terminal (e.g., tablet computer), by using "digital pen" technology which is used as an input method of hand-written characters. Our method is based on synchronizing the location of contact point on the tactile-map with the corresponding point on the online-map achieved through the following steps: 1) Create a road-only tactile map in SVG (scalable vector graphics) from the target online-map and copy it onto a tactile paper, 2) Point on the tactile-map by digital pen. Then, the coordinates of the contact point is synchronized by the digital pen synchronization mechanism and mapped onto the corresponding location in the online-map (a calibration is done beforehand between the maps using SVG facility). Thus, various information of the online-map can be provided to the visually impaired user in the text form from the online-map database in the similar way as to the sighted user.

Free Research Field

情報学