Multimodal Information Access Technology
The focus of much of my recent work has been directed toward the design, development, and usability evaluation of multimodal technologies to support environmental awareness, information access, and navigation without vision, with reduced vision, or with distracted vision. This research benefits blind/visually impaired users, as well as older adults (as the majority of vision loss is age-related) and sighted people who often need to operate in eyes-free situations (e.g., driving) or who are situationally blind to their environment (e.g., texting while walking). My work in this area uses human-centered design principles and is based on theories from human perception and cognition, behavioral and neuroimaging evidence, and usability evaluations.
My biggest contribution to MIAT has been the development in the VEMI lab of what we call a vibro-audio interface (VAI), which allows nonvisual and multimodal access to graphics using touchscreen-based devices. Our work avoids what I call “the engineering trap” (i.e., designing based on uninformed intuitions), which has traditionally plagued assistive technology design, by using inexpensive, multi-purpose, and commercially available platforms. Our work with the VAI and other multimodal information access technologies has had significant contributions on informing the design of usable, intuitive, and readily adopted information-access technology.
Relevant Citations:
1. Giudice, N.A., Palani, H., Brenner, E., and Kramer, K.M., (2012). Learning non-visual graphical information using a touch-based vibro-audio interface. Proceedings of the 14th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility (Assets’12) pp. 103-110. Boulder, Co, USA.
2. Klatzky, R.L., Giudice, N.A., Bennett, C.R., & Loomis, J.M. (2014). Touch-Screen Technology for the Dynamic Display of 2D Spatial Information without Vision: Promise and progress. Multisensory Research. 27(5-6), 359-378.
3. OModhrain, S., Giudice, N. A., Gardner, J. A., & Legge, G. E. (2015). Designing media for visually-impaired users of refreshable touch displays: Possibilities and pitfalls. IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 8(3), 248-257.
4. Gershon, N., Klatzky, R. L., Palani, H., & Giudice, N. A. (2016). Visual, tangible, and touch-screen: Comparison of platforms for displaying simple graphics. Assistive Technology, 28(1), 1-6.
5. Palani, H.P., Giudice, U., and Giudice, N.A. (2016). Evaluation of non-visual zooming operations on touchscreen devices. In M. Antona & C. Stephanidis (Eds.), Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction (UAHCI), Part of HCI International 2016. Toronto, CA. July 17-22 (pp. 162-174). Springer International.
Complete List of Published Work:
E-pubs at: https://umaine.edu/vemi/publications/
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jD95I7EAAAAJ