HaptiSole: Wearable Haptic System in Vibrotactile Guidance Shoes for Visually Impaired Wayfinding

Kammoun, Slim and Bouaziz, Rahma and Saeed, Faisal and Qasem, Sultan Noman and Al-Hadhrami, Tawfik (2023) HaptiSole: Wearable Haptic System in Vibrotactile Guidance Shoes for Visually Impaired Wayfinding. KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems, 17 (11). ISSN 1976-7277

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Abstract

During the last decade, several Electronic Orientation Aids devices have been proposed to solve the autonomy problems of visually impaired people. When hearing is considered the primary sense for Visually Impaired people (VI) and it is generally loaded with the environment, the use of tactile sense can be considered a solution to transmit directional information. This paper presents a new wearable haptic system based on four motors implemented in shoes, while six directions can be played. This study aims to introduce an interface design and investigate an appropriate means of spatial information delivery through haptic sense. The first experiment of the proposed system was performed with 15 users in an indoor environment. The results showed that the users were able to recognize, with high accuracy, the directions displayed on their feet. The second experiment was conducted in an outdoor environment with five blindfolded users who were guided along 120 meters. The users, guided only by the haptic system, successfully reached their destinations. The potential of tactile-foot stimulation to help VI understand Electronic Orientation Aids (EOA) instructions was discussed, and future challenges were defined.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.3837/tiis.2023.11.009
Dates:	Date Event 1 November 2023 Accepted 30 November 2023 Published Online
Subjects:	CAH11 - computing > CAH11-01 - computing > CAH11-01-01 - computer science
Divisions:	Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment > College of Computing
Depositing User:	Gemma Tonks
Date Deposited:	08 Dec 2023 16:53
Last Modified:	08 Dec 2023 16:53
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/15048

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