New technology to aid blind students in computer use

Radio shows often have contests to “name that tune.” The idea is for listeners to hear one snippet of a song and recognize the beat.\nIt’s basically the same idea fueling the project being worked on at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis to help blind students have better access to computers.\nThe principal investigator behind the project is Steve Mannheimer, a professor of new media at IUPUI.\n“The idea is to create a sound-based information navigation system with an interface to help blind students better access computers,” he said, “taking the visual component and replacing it with a sound-based system.”\nThe sound-based system is referred to as an acoustic user interface. It will have a touch screen with no keyboard, though it’s a possibility for the future. The system will rely not only on the acoustic memory of the students, but also the positional memory – the ability to remember where the buttons on the screen are.\n“You and I, when we open our desktops, we have our computers arranged in visually recognizable formats,” Mannheimer said, addressing the theory of positional memory.\nHowever, with blind students, recognition is based on acoustic, not visual, association. The students will be able to move their fingers across the screen and hear the different sound bits, each in association with a different subject matter. For example, when students roll their fingers across the American history unit, the “Star Spangled Banner” would play.\n“The purpose behind this project is that these little bits of sound bits are just as powerful as visual information,” Mannheimer said.\nThe research team at IUPUI has been working with staff and students at the Indiana School for the Blind. The students there have been helping the team, from picking which sounds are best for certain units to figuring out details such as the correct length of the sounds needed.\nAndrew Carlie, a junior majoring in financial management in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, recognizes the power of acoustic association in his life. “When watching something on television or hearing something on the radio, it reminds you of a specific time – sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad,” Carlie said.\nWhile this research is being done at IUPUI, there is also an informatics department at IU-Bloomington.\n“Informatics is making things easier for people using technology,” said Aaron Pollitt, a freshman majoring in informatics. “And the problem of blind students not being able to use computers is a problem that could be solved using technology.”\nThe project has been funded by a $115,000 grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Nina Mason Pulliam, the trust’s namesake, is connected to the project in more ways than its funding: Pulliam suffered from a brief period of blindness due to an allergy to printing ink.\n“I’m impressed with the project,” Carlie said. “I think it’s great for (blind students) to be able to access the same information and technology that we can.”\nThe project is expected to be completed in 20 months. With this expectation comes the hope, Mannheimer said, that it will be useful for blind students and other visually impaired people.\n“We’re going to, at some point, get a more complete knowledge of this acoustic world that the blind students live in,” Mannheimer said.