ATMap: Annotated Tactile Maps for the Visually Impaired

For the visually impaired, there are various challenges to understand cognitive spatial maps, specifically for the born blind. Although a few existing audio-haptic maps provide possibilities to access geographic data, most of them are hard to offer convenient services through interactive methods. We developed an interactive tactile map system, called ATMap. It allows users to create and share geographic referenced enhancing annotations on a 2D tactile map, in order to obtain more about relevant places beyond static information in GIS database. 5 blind users have been recruited to evaluate the system in a pilot study.

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