Abstract
This paper presents the design and fabrication of a wearable tactile communication interface with vibrotactile feedback for assistive communication. The interface is based on finger Braille, which is a simple and efficient tactile communication method used by deafblind people. It consists of a flexible piezoresistive sensor and a vibrotactile actuator integrated together and positioned at the index, middle and ring fingers of both hands to represent the six dots of Braille. The sensors were made using flexible piezoresistive material whereas the actuator utilizes electromagnetic principle by means of a flexible coil and a tiny NdFeB permanent magnet. Both were integrated to realize a Bluetooth-enabled tactile communication glove which enables deafblind people to communicate using Braille codes. The evaluation with 20 end-users (10 deafblind and 10 sighted and hearing person) of the tactile interface under standardized conditions demonstrated that users can feel and distinguish the vibration at frequencies ranging from 10Hz to 200Hz which is within the perceivable frequency range for the FA-II receptors. The results show that it took non-experts in Braille within 25s and 55s to send and receive words like "BEST" and "JOURNAL", with an accuracy of ~75% and 68% respectively.
Highlights
T ACTILE communication is a vital aspect of social life and deafblind people heavily rely on this because they are unable to communicate via visual/auditory means [1].In this regard, a tactile communication interface capable of providing touch feeling as well as the tactile feedback is much desired [2]
This includes the mobile phone-based Braille devices which use a mobile app to recognize the voice of a normal person, displays it on the phone screen using an equivalent finger Braille code, and follows this code to sign on the corresponding fingers of the deafblind person [37]
The tactile interface consists of a tandem piezoresistive sensing and actuator module
Summary
T ACTILE communication is a vital aspect of social life and deafblind people heavily rely on this because they are unable to communicate via visual/auditory means [1]. This includes the mobile phone-based Braille devices which use a mobile app to recognize the voice of a normal person, displays it on the phone screen using an equivalent finger Braille code, and follows this code to sign on the corresponding fingers of the deafblind person [37] Such methods do not allow deafblind user to learn and operate independently. The wearable tactile interface is needed with touch sensors and vibrotactile actuator at the same point on the index, middle and ring fingers of both hands This would enable the device to send and receive messages on the same location using finger Braille method. The device presented here addresses this requirement and comprises of a flexible piezoresistive sensor integrated with a flexible electromagnetic coil-based actuator positioned at the index, middle and ring fingers of both hands to represent the six dots of Braille (Fig. 1b).
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