Robot-Mediated haptics for blind students STEM education

Blind and low vision STEM education is hindered by an inability to engage with visual representations of STEM concepts. Our sense of touch provides us with a separate, distributed channel that could allow us to convey abstract STEM concepts non-visually. We propose using robot-mediated haptics to enable blind and low vision students to engage in STEM education through hands-on, interactive learning.

We have designed a mouse capable of rendering rich haptic effects through a delta mechanism which replaces the standard mouse button.

We are currently co-designing the rendering of graphical content through haptic feedback with members of the blind and visually impaired community. Our goal is to design an educational tool that can serve blind and visually impaired students.

Contact

Woongseok (Michael) Han (woongseh [at]andrew [dot] cmu [dot] edu)
Melisa Orta Martinez - (mortamar [at] andrew [dot] cmu [dot] edu)