!!! Click here to vote for your top 3 favorite innovations and share this link with your networks !!!

The voting will start on the 23rd of September and end on the 29th.

The result of the voting will be considered by the jury during their selection of the 12 finalists who will present their innovation on the e-pitching event on the 21st of October, from 3:00 to 5:30 pm (CET time).

If SUITCEYES becomes a finalist, this will not be positive just for the project, it will also highlight deafblindness at a totally different level.

Nasrine Olson, SUITCEYES Project Coordinator

The Innovation Radar is a European Commission initiative to identify high potential innovations and innovators in EU-funded research and innovation projects. Using intelligence gathered with the Innovation Radar method, the European Commission has, since 2015, been awarding the annual Innovation Radar Prize to the best EU-funded innovators.

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A Multimodal AAC Device for Individuals with Deafblindness

The concept for the Tactile Board emerged from co-creation sessions with members of the Deafblind community and aimed to support individuals with deafblindness in social interactions without the direct need of an intervener.

The handheld device is connected to a wearable that translates text messages and voice commands directly into haptic messages onto the upper back of the user. The messages sent through the Tactile Board can be sent to multiple devices at the same time, therefore allowing individuals with deafblindness to communicate with each other or send messages to a larger group of persons too.

If you are interested to read more about the Tactile Board, please follow the link to the published paper: https://doi.org/10.1145/3428361.3428465

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On Monday, a demonstration of the Keep Your Distance system was presented to attendees. The system was a collaboration between Offenburg University and the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås. The haptic wearable was designed to be used in a navigation game where a person with deafblindness plays as a secret agent and another player is a suspect that should be followed. To win the game, the secret agent should follow the haptic signals provided on the belt area and keep an optimal distance of 1.5 meters from the other player.

We are glad to share that the Keep Your Distance demonstration was the most liked presentation at ASSETS 2020 and won the “People’s Choice Award” of the year. A special recognition was given during the conference’s closing ceremony. Congratulations to all the authors! You can check the video presentation here:

On Wednesday, our on-going work on exploring materials for making touchscreens accessible to users with deafblindness was also presented at ASSETS. The work explored the concept of creating accessible interfaces for pattern locks through rapid prototyping with materials easily found at home. Attendees were impressed by our raw quinoa braille prototype!

Overall, ASSETS 2020 gave us the opportunity to showcase our current SUITCEYES project results and discuss future research directions with a community of top researchers in the field of accessible computing. Looking forward to ASSETS 2021!

If you are interested in reading our work, please find the references for the conference proceedings below:

1. James Gay, Moritz Umfahrer, Arthur Theil, Lea Buchweitz, Eva Lindell, Li Guo, Nils-Krister Persson, and Oliver Korn. 2020. Keep Your Distance: A Playful Haptic Navigation Wearable for Individuals with Deafblindness. In The 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’20), October 26–28, 2020, Virtual Event, Greece. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3373625.3418048

• Lea Buchweitz, Arthur Theil, James Gay, and Oliver Korn. 2020. Exploring Low-Cost Materials to Make Pattern-Based Lock-Screens Accessible for Users with Visual Impairments or Deafblindness. In The 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS ’20), October 26–28, 2020, Virtual Event, Greece. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3373625.3418020 

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The conference usually draws more than 4,500 persons annually who attend sessions, visit the exhibition halls, and participate in affiliate meetings and informal gatherings. Given the current situation related to the coronavirus pandemic, some exhibitors and participants withdrew from participation in this year’s conference. However, Harpo attended the conference, presented SUITCEYES on the project stand during the whole event and shared further plans of SUITCEYES!

Harpo further took the opportunity to talk to a person with deafblindness (a participant of this conference), who pointed to the need of quick communication (direct, face-to-face) with a sighted person, e.g.

• a bus driver: to be able to ask him to indicate the stop where to get off
• a passerby: asking for directions, moving around the city

It was a very inspiring conversation to explore even more the way in which people with deafblindness can communicate immediately with sighted and hearing people.

Unfortunately, however, it was the last opportunity to share the results and experience of SUITCEYES with CSUN AT Conference visitors from around the world.

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Mr Persson demonstrated The “Black Dress” of SUITCEYES and described the project. SUITCEYES aims for inclusion in society by interactive garments devoted for persons having deafblindness and is therefore about democracy which is within the realms of the Minister.

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“Na Tak meetings” are a series of international conferences organized by the Na Tak Association and the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Harpo was the strategic partner of the conference. This year the conference was attended by 252 persons. Among the guests of the conference were special educators, therapists, physiotherapists, carers and assistants of people with disabilities, as well as students, parents and volunteers.

As every year “Na Tak meeting” took under consideration issues of living with disability from many perspectives. Visitors of the conference could hear different lectures presented by academic lecturers, practicing therapists and physiotherapists, successfully working with people suffering from profound and multiple disabilities, who shared with the audience their knowledge, experience and working methods.

There was also an exhibition during the conference. The exhibitors presented specialised electronic devices and supporting technologies necessary for the therapy and education of people with different disabilities. Technologies dedicated to individuals with disabilities allow to take part in social life, increase independence and make everyday life easier. We hope that SUITCEYES will contribute to existing solutions and add them a whole new quality.

The SUITCEYES project was promoted by Harpo, at our design stand. We presented the poster and distributed promotional materials, and discussed the goals of the project with visitors. We also reported the progress and current stage of SUITCEYES. We had many visitors, who were very interested and curious to see final results of the project, and the product ready to use.

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Having created a prototype for the gamified scenario titled Follow Your Partner, designed to help individuals with deafblindness learn how to navigate with the vest, it was time to conduct a pilot study. The study, part of the SUITCEYES project, took place this November in Stuttgart and at Offenburg University with four individuals with deafblindness.

The Follow Your Partner scenario revolves around a fictional story involving two persons: the wearer of the vest (a deafblind individual) assuming the role of a special agent who is pursuing a suspect (sighted person). Over the course of the game the agent must keep an optimal distance to the suspect. Getting too close to or too far away from the suspect, in either case, results in a mission failure. Throughout the game the suspect can turn towards the agent. During this period the agent must not move until the suspect is facing away from the user where it is safe again for the agent to resume pursuing the suspect.

We have enhanced the prototype utilized for the Easter Egg hunt study by incorporating a fisheye camera used to detect objects with the help of computer vision software. In addition to the vibration motors placed at point-specific locations around the vest, we have included micro-servo motors which are placed on the front and back of the shoulders to create a tapping sensation. Our project partner from Borås University have kindly designed a one-size-fits-most vest for the purpose of the study. This piece of garment can be adjusted in size through a zipping mechanism on either side of the vest and includes small pouches that are sewn into the garment to place actuators inside. Furthermore, wires can be concealed by placing them in between the outer fabric and the lining of the garment.

The four individuals with deafblindness found the scenario thrilling and were surprised by how quickly they could understand the information provided to them through the vibrations and micro-servo motors. This week we have started examining the results of the study and are planning a larger study with deafblind individuals early next year.

We are now looking forward to the SUITCEYES consortium in December where members of the project will be making the trip to Offenburg. Over the two days we will have the chance to work together more closely in workshops and to discuss the next steps of the project.

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See the award here 2nd prize best paper award

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association_for_visual_rehabilitation

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