User Evaluations of a Virtual Haptic-Audio Line Drawing Prototype

A virtual haptic-audio drawing program prototype designed for visually impaired children, has been gradually developed in a design-evaluation loop involving users in four stages. Three qualitative evaluations focused on recognizing drawn shapes and creating drawings have been conducted together with a reference group of 5 visually impaired children. Additionally, one formal pilot test involving 11 adult sighted users investigated the use of a combination of haptic and sound field feedback. In the latter test the relief type (positive and negative) was also varied. Results indicate a subjective preference as well as a shorter examination time for negative relief over positive relief for the interpretation of simple shapes such as 2D geometrical figures. The presence of the position sound field with a pitch and stereo panning analogy was not shown to affect task completion times.