| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | November 1, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | November 1, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1758174 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Pamela McCauley
TI Translational Impacts TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | November 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $50,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $50,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
5717 CORBETT HALL ORONO ME US 04469-5717 (207)581-1484 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Orono ME US 04469-5717 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | I-Corps |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is in resolving the long-standing graphical access problem for millions of blind and visually-impaired (BVI) people. Lack of access to these substantial informational components of daily life represents one of the biggest challenges to the independence and productivity of BVI individuals. This project addresses this vexing accessibility issue through a viable information access solution built on commercial, low-cost touchscreen-based smart computing devices such as smartphones and tablets. The solution will assist BVI people by potentially providing dynamic access to digital school books and test materials, graphics in vocational settings, digital maps, and graphical contents of printed materials. The broader impact of this project is that it will promote empowerment of BVI individuals by supporting increased educational advancement, vocational opportunities, enhanced quality of life, and overall greater independence.
This I-Corp project will explore the commercial potential and market fit for a touchscreen-based graphics screen reader. This solution will allow blind people to freely explore and access graphical information via vibration and auditory feedback on a smartphone or tablet. Through a battery of usability, psychophysical, and technical experiments, the technology has been shown to be effective compared to existing solutions and is accurate in conveying informative graphical materials such as graphs, shapes, patterns, and indoor maps. The focus of the proposed I-Corp project is to understand the commercial fit and usability of the solution in meeting end-user needs and problems.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project was to evaluate the efficacy of a new information-access solution, called a graphics screen reader, which allows blind and visually impaired (BVI) people to freely explore and access graphical information via vibration and auditory feedback on a commercial smartphone or tablet. Current technologies for providing nonvisual access to graphical content are extremely expensive, only convey static information, are based on one modality (such as touch or auditory descriptions), and are rarely available to users. The lack of access to this information represents one of the biggest challenges to the independence and productivity for this demographic. By contrast, our graphics access solution is inexpensive, based on dynamic information, inherently multimodal, and based on universally designed commercial hardware that is already broadly adopted by BVI users. This I-Corp project allowed us to conduct critical customer discovery relating to our product, which if commercialized, will promote empowerment of BVI individuals by supporting increased educational advancement, vocational opportunities, enhanced quality of life, and overall greater independence. We have already shown, through a series of experiments, that our solution is most effective compared to existing solutions (i.e., hardcopy graphical equivalents) and is accurate in conveying informative graphical materials to BVI people, such as: (1) digital school books and test materials (e.g., SAT), (2) graphics in vocational settings, and (3) digital maps.
Throughout this I-Corps project we explored the commercial potential and market fit of our invention through a rigorous set of customer interviews with key stakeholders across the country within the BVI demographic and its broader ecosystem. The results from more than 180 interviews allowed us to validate our approach, determine the most critical needs of the end users, and establish a clear commercialization path. Outcomes of this customer discovery ensure that future development of our solution is aimed at addressing real user needs and current market problems.
Last Modified: 06/12/2019
Modified by: Nicholas Giudice
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