THE FUTURE OF TACTILE CARTOGRAPHY: FROM STATIC RAISED LINES
TO MULTIMODAL DYNAMIC PORTABLE COMPUTER INTERFACES
R.D. Jacobson
University of Calgary, Department of Geography, Calgary, Canada
dan.jacobson@ucalgary.ca
While still not considered a large component
of mainstream cartographic research, the map-related research focusing on the
blind and partially sighted map user population continues to grow.
Currently, several groups of researchers housed in universities in North
America and internationally are conducting and pursuing research that focuses
on identifying the needs, creating new innovative delivery methods, assessing
strategies and spatial and geospatial performance, improving access, and
developing potential educational resources for blind and partially sighted map
users.
Traditional tactile maps are tangible raised line products that are difficult to interpret, produce and to disseminate. By moving to a digital development and interaction paradigm it is possible to facilitate digital tactile maps with location based context aware services in the geographic environment. Additional modalities for displaying cartographic information are accessed through an enhanced tactile map or the electronic version of the tactile map through a touchpad, touchscreen, or haptic interface that uses force feedback to simulate the raised surface of a tactile map. A digital virtual equivalent of a tactile map can now be disseminated across the Internet, accessible by many users in different locations, including portable data assistants. The research outlines a conceptual schema for integrating graphic, auditory and haptic information, in map displays. Each of these modalities has their own set of variables. Auditory information is presented in map referenced, spatialised and immersive contexts, incorporating a mixture of speech, representational sound, sonification, and earcons.
This facilitates a user to hear auditory cues that add both redundant and complementary information that would normally be presented through text labels and other cartographic depiction methods. Results are presented with auditory and haptic displays where users have been analyzed performing simplified map reading tasks, such as, shape identification, searching, zooming and panning.
A
multimodal approach to cartographic data interaction provides novel
opportunities for interacting with cartographic data. This has wide reaching relevance beyond
tactile mapping incorporating innovative and original solutions to key
cartographic research areas. These include, but are not limited to,
environments where users may be “blind” due to bandwidth or small screen
display problems in mobile computing environments, attention diversion in car
navigation systems, or by an overloaded visual channel in complex data analysis
interfaces in geovisualization and data mining interfaces, or novice users
exploring unfamiliar data.