The purpose of this project is to develop an unencumbering means for the blind to access computer-based two dimensional information that offers them the advantages that electronic media provide to the sighted. The user's hands will rest on a physical desktop. The image of their hands will be picked up by a video camera and superimposed on a virtual desktop. Using the VIDEODESK technology invented by Dr. Myron Krueger for virtual reality applications which has been under development for the last quarter of a century, the computer will know instantaneously where the user's fingers are pointing in the virtual image. It can then display the feature being touched with sound. It can speak its name or play back a sound code that illustrates the type of feature being touched. Because the representation is completely electronic, blind computer users will be able to pan, zoom, and control the level of detail for the first time. The result is a highly dynamic interactive system that can provide the blind community with a new way to access spatial information. The same technology will have significant appeal for the sighted as well. Phase 1 will focus on map-based information.
The VIDEODESK will be sold to the blind community, but has tremendous potential to be used by the sighted in everyday office applications.
