Jing (Kelly) Zhang: Force Feedback Mouse: Exploring shape learning for the visually impaired

Jing (Kelly) Zhang is majoring in Business Management Economics at the University of California-Santa Cruz and is planning to finish her degree in Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley. She participated in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship -- Information Technology (Surf-IT), and worked in the computer vision lab under Dr. Roberto Manduchi. The goal of the project she worked on was to use a relatively cheap device to make a computer map for the visually impaired.

During the summer, Jing used polygons as “basic maps”, and tested 11 subjects using the Logitech force feedback mouse. The subject was asked to perform the test blindfolded. For the tests, each subject tried to trace the perimeter of each shape in a clockwise fashion three times, with the help of the mouse and special guiding programmed sounds. They were also asked to draw the shapes with the blindfold on and off, also to pick the correct shape from a list of shapes provided. Results were drawn from time spent and correct shape chosen at the end of each test by each subject. Future work is needed before we can use a real computer map to run the tests. Jing believes an engineer should design products to help people and our society, the summer research program funded by NSF gave her a chance to be one step closer to reach her goal.