斯坦福大学工程师与盲人和视力受损群体开发基于触摸显示器-新东方前途出国

　　A new touch-based display makes 3D design accessible to the blindThis project is about empowering visually impaired users to design and create independently without relying on sighted mediators.November 13, 2019 

　　一种新的基于触摸的显示器使得盲人可以使用3D设计这个项目是为了让视力受损的用户能够独立设计和创建，而不依赖视觉中介。2019年11月13日 在线咨询

　　The tactile display pairs with 3D design software to produce touchable representations of a user’s work. | Image courtesy of Farrin Abbott

　　触觉显示器与三维设计软件配对，产生用户工作的可触摸表示。|图片由Farrin Abbott提供

　　By Taylor Kubota

　　作者：Taylor Kubota

　　With the goal of increasing access to making, engineers at Stanford University have collaborated with members of the blind and visually impaired community to develop a touch-based display that mimics the geometry of 3D objects designed on a computer.

　　为了增加制作的机会，斯坦福大学的工程师与盲人和视力受损群体的成员合作，开发了一种基于触摸的显示器，可以模拟计算机上设计的三维物体的几何结构。

　　Creating a 3D object with computer software is often the first step in producing it physically and can be burdensome for people who are blind or visually impaired. Even with 3D modeling software that has more accessible ways of inputting designs, they still have to evaluate their work by either creating a physical version they can touch or by listening to a description provided by a sighted person.

　　用计算机软件创建三维物体通常是物理制作的第一步，对于盲人或视力受损的人来说，这可能是一个负担。即使三维建模软件有更方便的输入设计的方式，他们仍然需要评估他们的工作，要么创建一个他们可以触摸的物理版本，要么通过聆听一个有视力的人提供的描述。 在线咨询

　　“Design tools empower users to create and contribute to society but, with every design choice, they also limit who can and cannot participate,” said Alexa Siu, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Stanford, who developed, tested and refined the system featured in this research.

　　斯坦福大学机械工程专业的研究生Alexa Siu开发、测试和完善了本研究中的系统，她说：“设计工具使用户能够创造并为社会做出贡献，但是，在每一个设计选择中，他们也限制了哪些人可以参与，哪些人不能参与。”。

　　“This project is about empowering a blind user to be able to design and create independently without relying on sighted mediators because that reduces creativity, agency and availability.”

　　“本项目旨在让盲人用户能够独立设计和创建，而不依赖视觉中介，因为这会降低创造力、代理能力和可用性。”

　　This work is part of a larger effort within the lab of Sean Follmer, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, to develop tactile displays — displays that relay information through touch — for various purposes, such as human-computer interaction and new ways of sharing or explaining 3D information. Siu presented the current work on Oct. 29 at the International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS). Although the display she presented is a prototype, the lab hopes to make a version that is less expensive, larger and able to create shapes in greater detail.

　　这项工作是机械工程助理教授肖恩·福勒（Sean Follmer）实验室更大努力的一部分，该实验室致力于开发触觉显示器——通过触摸传递信息的显示器——用于各种目的，例如人机交互和共享或解释3D信息的新方法。在10月29日举行的国际ACM SIGACCESS计算机与无障碍（ASSETS）会议上，Siu介绍了当前的工作。尽管她展示的是一个原型，但实验室希望能制造出一个更便宜、更大、能够更详细地创建形状的版本。

　　Joshua Miele, co-author on the paper, is a blind scientist, designer and educator who helped develop the system while he was associate director of technology research and development at the Smith-Kettlewell Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center. “It opens up the possibility of blind people being, not just consumers of the benefits of fabrication technology, but agents in it, creating our own tools from 3D modeling environments that we would want or need — and having some hope of doing it in a timely manner,” he said.

　　本文的合著者Joshua Miele是一位盲人科学家、设计师和教育家，他在Smith-kettwell康复工程研究中心担任技术研发副主任期间帮助开发了该系统。他说：“这为盲人带来了可能性，他们不仅是制造技术利益的消费者，而且是其中的代理人，从我们想要或需要的三维建模环境中创建我们自己的工具，并对及时完成这项工作抱有希望。”。 在线咨询

　　Greater understanding

　　加深理解

　　The display is reminiscent of a pin art toy in that it forms shapes from a field of tall, rectangular pegs that move up and down. By inputting the specifications of their desired shape in the accompanying 3D modeling program, users can evaluate their creation via the touchable display. Whenever they alter the shape, they can command the display to render it anew. This tactile display is considered 2.5D rather than 3D because the bottom of the display doesn’t change shape.

　　这个展览让人想起一个别针艺术玩具，它是由一个上下移动的长方形高钉构成的。通过在附带的三维建模程序中输入所需形状的规格，用户可以通过触摸屏评估其创建。每当他们改变形状，他们可以命令显示器重新渲染它。这种触觉显示器被认为是2.5D而不是3D，因为显示器的底部不会改变形状。

　　The researchers co-designed this system with people who are blind or visually impaired, a process that was integral to making it address the actual needs of its users. In the end, the team produced a system that can rotate a 3D model, zoom in and zoom out on an object, and show it in split sections — such as showing the top and bottom of a cup beside each other. Users can also feel the shape with multiple fingers or their whole hand, which enhances the information they can interpret from the display.

　　研究人员与盲人或视力受损的人共同设计了这个系统，这是使它满足用户实际需求的一个不可或缺的过程。最后，研究小组制作了一个系统，可以旋转一个三维模型，放大和缩小一个物体，并将其分为几个部分来显示，比如将杯子的顶部和底部显示在一起。用户还可以用多个手指或整只手来感觉形状，这增强了他们从显示屏上可以解读的信息。

　　“What really is so awesome is that I can view various perspectives of the object and not just the object in its single state,” said Son Kim, an assistive technology specialist for the Vista Center for the Blind in Palo Alto and co-author of the paper. “That offers greater dimension to understanding the object that you’re attempting to make. And that’s the same opportunity that a sighted peer would have, where they too would be able to view various perspectives of their target object.”

　　帕洛阿尔托的Vista盲人中心的辅助技术专家、论文的合著者Son Kim说：“真正令人敬畏的是，我可以看到物体的不同视角，而不仅仅是单一状态下的物体。”。“这为理解你试图制造的物体提供了更大的维度。这和有视力的同龄人有同样的机会，他们也可以从不同的角度观察目标物体。”

　　The team had five people who were blind or visually impaired test the platform and the system received very positive feedback, including requests from the users to keep the models they created during testing.

　　该团队有5名盲人或视障人士测试平台，系统收到非常积极的反馈，包括用户要求保留他们在测试期间创建的模型。 在线咨询

　　“Personally, I believe that access to tools and access to making is something that’s incredibly important and incredibly powerful,” said Follmer, who is senior author of the paper. “So to hear about the types of devices and objects and 3D models that they wanted to create was the most exciting part.”

　　“就我个人而言，我相信获得工具和制造是一件非常重要和非常强大的事情，”该论文的资深作者福默说。“因此，了解他们想要创建的设备和对象的类型以及三维模型是最令人兴奋的部分。”

　　Scale and resolution

　　比例尺和分辨率

　　With the success of this early-stage process of co-design and testing, the researchers would like to improve the scale, affordability and resolution of the pin display — currently, each pin is rather large, so the display can’t show much detail.

　　随着这一早期协同设计和测试过程的成功，研究人员希望提高pin显示器的规模、价格和分辨率——目前，每个pin都相当大，因此显示器无法显示太多细节。

　　“The feedback we received showed that, even with this coarse display, we can still get meaningful interactions,” said Siu. “That suggests there’s a lot of potential in the future for this kind of system.”

　　“我们收到的反馈显示，即使使用这种粗略的显示，我们仍然可以得到有意义的互动，”萧说。“这表明这种系统在未来有很大的潜力。” 在线咨询

　　The researchers would also like to explore alternatives to the software program, which requires some programming skills and is reliant on text-based communication. One option may be a system where users physically adjust the pins, which causes the code to change and match what they formed.

　　研究人员还希望探索软件程序的替代方案，这需要一些编程技巧，并且依赖于基于文本的通信。一种选择可能是用户物理调整管脚的系统，这会导致代码更改并匹配它们形成的内容。

　　“I really am excited about this project,” said Kim. “If it moves toward implementation or mass distribution in such a way that is cost-effective that would enable future, visually-impaired or blind designers coming out of college to have a tool, which would give that person or persons the level of accessibility to enhance their learning; it contributes to the principle of individual, universal access and promotes independence.”

　　“我真的对这个项目很兴奋，”金说。“如果它以一种成本效益高的方式走向实施或大规模分发，使未来从大学毕业的视障或盲人设计师能够拥有一种工具，使他们能够获得提高学习水平的便利；它有助于个人的原则，普及和促进独立。”

　　Another graduate student in the Follmer lab is focused on creating a less expensive version of the system. | Video courtesy of the Stanford SHAPE Lab.

　　Follomer实验室的另一名研究生则专注于开发一个价格更低的系统。|斯坦福形状实验室提供的视频。

　　This research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

　　这项研究由国家科学基金资助。