http://talking-points.org
A Mobile Context-based Information System for Urban
Orientation of Sighted and Visually-Impaired Users
presented by
Michelle EscobarUniversity of MichiganSchool of Information
http://talking-points.org/2008/09/23/addw-conference
http://talking-points.orgPhoto © OliverN5 (flickr.com)
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Lots of Visual, Serendipitous Information in Urban
Environments
http://talking-points.org
For Visually-Impaired people it looks different
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Our Answer: Talking-Points location
http://talking-points.org
Talking-Points System
http://talking-points.org
Design Objectives
• Following a user centered design process
• Making the device unobtrusive in terms of form factor and user interaction
• Leveraging community-generated location information
http://talking-points.org
Follow user-centered design processes
Early focus on the user
Active user participation throughout the
project
Early prototyping
Continuous iteration of design solutions
Multidisciplinary design team
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Creating scenarios
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Simulating the system
WOz (Wizard of Oz) study:
Human plays role of system interpreting user inputs and issuing appropriate response according to predefined rules modeling the intended system behavior
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Other Influences
Observational interviews
Focus group
User testing
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Open source software
• Open source software encourages personalization to meet user’s needs
• Java
• CMU Sphinx library
• FreeTTS
FreeTTS
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Adoption of an unobtrusive device
• Assistive technology devices tend to have a high abandon rate
• Devices that are inconspicuous do not force “disabled” status on individuals
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Hardware Components• OQO
– Bluetooth– Headphone– EVDO/GPRS Internet
Connectivity– Small– Long-lasting Battery
• Headset– Bluetooth– Long-lasting Battery
• Bluetooth beacon– Durable– Unobtrusive– Unique MAC address
http://talking-points.org
Community-generated location information
• Talking-Points website
• Ownership of tags
• Database accrued from community & other sites
http://talking-points.org
Future Work
Limitations of Bluetooth as a location-
tagging technology
Lack of orientation information impedes
usability
Textually-submitted content may not be
suitable for speech-based delivery
http://talking-points.org
Questions?
http://talking-points.org
Contact Information
http://talking-points.org
Google Code:
http://code.google.com/p/
talkingpoints-2/
Michelle [email protected]
www.umich.edu/~escobarm