Communications of the ACM
Haptimap Project Aims to Make Maps Accessible Through Touch, Hearing and Vision
Credit: HaptiMap Project
A European consortium plans to develop toolkits and concepts for improving the multimodal perceptualizations (visualizations involving senses other than sight) of mobile devices.
Researchers on the HaptiMap project believe that gestures, tactile/haptic interaction, and sound would make maps and location-based services more accessible for users of mobile devices, especially when they are walking or cycling, are in bright sunlight, or for users who may have poor eyesight. The project is expected to lead to new guidelines on accessibility issues, suggestions for extending current design practices, and the creation of new tools to help developers add adaptable multimodal components to applications.
The HaptiMap project hopes to fund a commercial partner to develop a location-based service that allows users to interact with haptic, audio, and/or visual information.
Sweden's Lund University is the coordinator of the project, whose 13 members also include the Finnish Geodetic Institute, the University of Glasgow, Queen's University, and TECNALIA.
From Basque Research
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2010 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA 
No entries found