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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Development Of Tangible Code Blocks For The Blind And Visually Impaired, Hyun Woo Kim
Development Of Tangible Code Blocks For The Blind And Visually Impaired, Hyun Woo Kim
Theses and Dissertations
The fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) have been growing at an accelerating rate in recent times. Knowing how to program has become one key skill for entering all of these STEM fields. However, many students find programming difficult. The block based programming language, Scratch, was specifically designed to lower hurdles to learning how to program for sighted students. Unfortunately, although very effective and widely used in K12 classrooms, Scratch, similar to other block based languages, is inaccessible to students who are blind and visually impaired (BVI). This thesis is part of a larger project to make the …
A Real-Time 3d Object Detection, Recognition And Presentation System On A Mobile Device For Assistive Navigation, Jin Chen
Dissertations and Theses
This thesis proposes an integrated solution for 3D object detection, recognition, and presentation to increase accessibility for various user groups in indoor areas through a mobile application. The system has three major components: a 3D object detection module, an object tracking and update module, and a voice and AR-enhanced interface. The 3D object detection module consists of pre-trained 2D object detectors and 3D bounding box estimation methods to detect the 3D poses and sizes of the objects in each camera frame. This module can easily adapt to various 2D object detectors (e.g., YOLO, SSD, Mask RCNN) based on the requested …
A Hybrid Gaze Pointer With Voice Control, Indhuja Ravi
A Hybrid Gaze Pointer With Voice Control, Indhuja Ravi
Master's Projects
Accessibility in technology has been a challenge since the beginning of the 1800s. Starting with building typewriters for the blind by Pellegrino Turri to the on-screen keyboard built by Microsoft, there have been several advancements towards assistive technologies. The basic tools necessary for anyone to operate a computer are to be able to navigate the device, input information, and perceive the output. All these three categories have been undergoing tremendous advancements over the years. Especially, with the internet boom, it has now become a necessity to point onto a computer screen. This has somewhat attracted research into this particular area. …
Experiences Of Using Intelligent Virtual Assistants By Visually Impaired Students In Online Higher Education, Michele R. Forbes
Experiences Of Using Intelligent Virtual Assistants By Visually Impaired Students In Online Higher Education, Michele R. Forbes
USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations
In today’s world, the attainment of higher education impacts the acquisition of competitive employment and, thus, quality of life. As a group, persons with disabilities continually fall behind others in such academic progress, requiring new efforts to support their earning of advanced credentials. Though highly beneficial for these individuals, obtaining a degree comes with elevated levels of stress. As enrollment of students with disabilities grows in all formats of higher education, those involved must understand the stress endured by these students and how to diminish it. Theories speculate that technology, such as intelligent virtual assistants, may be a viable tool …
Virtual Reality As Navigation Tool: Creating Interactive Environments For Individuals With Visual Impairments, Nick Murphy
Virtual Reality As Navigation Tool: Creating Interactive Environments For Individuals With Visual Impairments, Nick Murphy
Master of Science in Computer Science Theses
Research into the creation of assistive technologies is increasingly incorporating the use of virtual reality experiments. One area of application is as an orientation and mobility assistance tool for people with visual impairments. Some of the challenges are developing useful knowledge of the user’s surroundings and effectively conveying that information to the user. This thesis examines the feasibility of using virtual environments conveyed via auditory feedback as part of an autonomous mobility assistance system. Two separate experiments were conducted to study key aspects of a potential system: navigation assistance and map generation. The results of this research include mesh models …
Developing Accessible Collection And Presentation Methods For Observational Data, Drew Marie Williams
Developing Accessible Collection And Presentation Methods For Observational Data, Drew Marie Williams
Dissertations (1934 -)
The processes of collecting, cleaning, and presenting data are critical in ensuring the proper analysis of data at a later date. An opportunity exists to enhance the data collection and presentation process for those who are not data scientists – such as healthcare professionals and businesspeople interested in using data to help them make decisions. In this work, creating an observational data collection and presentation tool is investigated, with a focus on developing a tool prioritizing user-friendliness and context preservation of the data collected. This aim is achieved via the integration of three approaches to data collection and presentation.In …
Assistive Technology Guidelines For Higher Education Disability Support Staff, Brenda Delee
Assistive Technology Guidelines For Higher Education Disability Support Staff, Brenda Delee
CCE Theses and Dissertations
With the changing laws and effective integration of assistive technology into the classroom environment, students can have the provision of multiple means to complete their work with greater independence. In post secondary education, any student who discloses a sensory, cognitive, or physical disability is eligible to request and receive assistive technology and other services. When used correctly, assistive technology can help students with reading, writing, math, and communication skills. With a possible influx of students, disability support staff must be prepared and willing to meet the needs and address issues relating to students with disabilities. If their needs are not …
Give-Me: Gamification In Virtual Environments For Multimodal Evaluation - A Framework, Wai L. Khoo
Give-Me: Gamification In Virtual Environments For Multimodal Evaluation - A Framework, Wai L. Khoo
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In the last few decades, a variety of assistive technologies (AT) have been developed to improve the quality of life of visually impaired people. These include providing an independent means of travel and thus better access to education and places of work. There is, however, no metric for comparing and benchmarking these technologies, especially multimodal systems. In this dissertation, we propose GIVE-ME: Gamification In Virtual Environments for Multimodal Evaluation, a framework which allows for developers and consumers to assess their technologies in a functional and objective manner. This framework is based on three foundations: multimodality, gamification, and virtual reality. It …
Face Tracking User Interfaces Using Vision-Based Consumer Devices, Norman Villaroman
Face Tracking User Interfaces Using Vision-Based Consumer Devices, Norman Villaroman
Theses and Dissertations
Some individuals have difficulty using standard hand-manipulated input devices such as a mouse and a keyboard effectively. For such users who at the same time have sufficient control over face and head movement, a robust perceptual or vision-based user interface that can track face movement can significantly help them. Using vision-based consumer devices makes such a user interface readily available and allows its use to be non-intrusive. Designing this type of user interface presents some significant challenges particularly with accuracy and usability. This research investigates such problems and proposes solutions to create a usable and robust face tracking user interface …
Fuzzy Mouse Cursor Control System For Computer Users With Spinal Cord Injuries, Tihomir Surdilovic
Fuzzy Mouse Cursor Control System For Computer Users With Spinal Cord Injuries, Tihomir Surdilovic
Computer Science Theses
People with severe motor-impairments due to Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) or Spinal Cord Dysfunction (SCD), often experience difficulty with accurate and efficient control of pointing devices (Keates et al., 02). Usually this leads to their limited integration to society as well as limited unassisted control over the environment. The questions “How can someone with severe motor-impairments perform mouse pointer control as accurately and efficiently as an able-bodied person?” and “How can these interactions be advanced through use of Computational Intelligence (CI)?” are the driving forces behind the research described in this paper. Through this research, a novel fuzzy mouse cursor …