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Methodology for building virtual reality mobile applications for blind people on advanced visits to unknown interior spaces

Abstract:

Virtual reality applications for blind people in smartphones were used to make virtual visits in advance to unknown spaces; these need to include a set of cognitive and sensitive interfaces that allow users to use their other sensory capabilities to understand information about their environment and facilitate the interaction with the application, so that the user can make a mental representation of the unknown space. Some strategies were designed to provide continuous and clear information to the user, so that he can perform exploration activities within a virtual environment generated from a real environment with the help of nineteen blind people and five visually impaired people who participated in the development and tests carried out into six workshops, during twenty-four months. During each workshop took logs about the activities that the user did for the recognized and location of objects and structures indoors. This information was stored in a database to be analyzed and interpreted in order to make subsequent modifications to the application, until achieving a tool that is sufficiently useful, safe and accepted for the user. The last applications were built with voice patterns, beeps, vibrations and gestures called sensitive interfaces, and also with a cognitive interface called "Focus of attention" based on proximity and remote exploration. There was is a thirty-eight percent of improved when the participants choose to remote explore the virtual environment with regard to proximity exploration, also there was preference to be warned with low to medium frequency beeps, a fast reproduction of the voice to receive information on objects and structures and simple gestures for the interaction with Smartphone. In the last experience, we used a structure sensor coupled to the Smartphone for user tracking, and bone conduction headphones to reproduce spatial sounds; they said was pleasing to hear 3D sounds with personalized response in bone earphones, for locating objects inside the test scenario; there was a twenty-one percent of improved when the participants using beeps instead of vocals or musical instruments.