Lab Experiment Studies

Lab Experiment Study 1: Five Signaling Conditions

Goals

  • Investigated experience and effectiveness of five signaling designs to guide item acquisition

Designs

  • 5 feedback types: Tones; Speech; Haptic; Speech + Haptic; Tones + Haptic
  • Wizard of Oz mockup of grocery shelves; prototype haptic glove system; camera
  • Pilot study - 63 blind-folded undergrad students
  • Main study - 11 people with visual impairments

Findings

  • Arm-and-hand navigation support experienced as helpful
  • Most effective and preferred feedback condition – Speech + Haptic
  • Active engagement, social learning, and “shopping”

User Interface Prototype and Experimental Study

Work Published in ASSETS/POSTER and Computer Magazine

Lab Experiment Study 2: Two Designs for Multimodal Signaling

Goals

  • Investigated two multimodal designs (speech and haptic vibration) to guide item acquisition

Designs

  • Two speech+vibration conditions: Continuous versus Boundary condition
  • Wizard of Oz mockup grocery shelves; haptic glove + bone conduction headset prototype system
  • Pilot study – 5 blind folded sighted people
  • Exploratory study – 12 visually impaired attendees at NFB PA State Convention
  • Main study – 11 visually impaired people

Findings

  • Both conditions were more effective than the earlier multimodal combinations from study #1, but no overall preference
  • Personal level preferences and rationales
  • A paper describing this work is in preparation

Experimental Study