Einladung zur öffentlichen Disputation

von Herrn Kris Lohmann

Montag, 15. April 2013, 16:00 Uhr

Informatikum, Vogt-Kölln-Str. 30, Haus F, Raum 334

"Verbal Assistance with Virtual Tactile Maps: A Multi-Modal Interface for the Non-Visual Acquisition of Spatial Knowledge"

Abstract:

The non-visual access to overview information about spatial environments is highly important for blind and visually impaired people. Tactile maps explored by touch can be used as substitutes for visual maps, yet, it is harder to acquire information from them than from visual maps. An interface that combines situated natural-language assistance and virtual variants of tactile maps to facilitate non-visual acquisition of spatial knowledge is evaluated in my research. The haptic part of the interface, virtual tactile maps, is perceived by a map user using a haptic human-computer device.

An evaluation of the effectiveness of assisting utterances to facilitate non-visual spatial knowledge acquisition from virtual tactile maps is discussed.

The empirical results show that, in general, assisting utterances facilitate the non-visual acquisition of knowledge. This shows the potential of multi-modal representations to communicate spatial information non-visually. Blind and visually impaired people acquire more knowledge from virtual tactile maps receiving assisting utterances than when they only receive information about the names of objects. The empirical results show that blindfolded sighted people perform differently than blind and visually impaired people.

Secondly, the technical possibility of a system that generates assisting utterances as proposed is addressed. A technical solution solving this natural-language-generation task is presented.

To sum up, the results show the potential and the practicability of using natural language in combination with virtual haptics to present spatial information non-visually. The results imply that blind and visually impaired people are able to acquire integrated spatial knowledge. Furthermore, the results point towards differences in the integration of spatial language and haptic information between visually impaired and sighted people.

Alle Mitglieder des Fachbereichs Informatik sind zu dieser öffentlichen Veranstaltung herzlich eingeladen.

Kontakt:

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Menzel
Vorsitzender des Promotionsprüfungsausschusses