Contact
uran.oh@ewha.ac.kr
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Ewha Womans University
The Motivation
While sighted users may learn to perform touchscreen gestures through observation (e.g., of other users or video tutorials), such mechanisms are inaccessible for users with visual impairments. As a result, learning to perform gestures without visual feedback can be challenging.
Related Publication(s)
The Motivation
With the increasing popularity of mainstream wearable devices, it is critical to assess the accessibility implications of such technologies. For people with visual impairments, who do not always need the visual display of a mobile phone, alternative means of eyes-free wearable interaction are particularly appealing.
Related Publication(s)
Current and Future Mobile and Wearable Device Use by People With Visual Impairments [PDF]
The Motivation
The recent miniaturization of cameras has enabled finger-based reading approaches that provide blind and visually impaired readers with access to printed materials. Compared to handheld text scanners such as mobile phone applications, mounting a tiny camera on the user’s own finger has the potential to mitigate camera framing issues, enable a blind reader to better understand the spatial layout of a document, and provide better control over reading pace.
Related Publication(s)
The Motivation
When in an unfamiliar place, people tend to use a walking navigation system on their device to compare the map location to the surrounding views. However, visually impaired people cannot check the map or the surrounding scenery to bridge the gap between the ground truth and the rough GPS location. NavCog aims for an improved high-accuracy walking navigation system that uses BLE beacons together with various kinds of sensors with a new localization algorithm for both indoors and outdoors. [A link to the project]
Related Publication(s)
The Motivation
People with visual impairments walk along braille blocks. In particular, viscous blocks help to stop walking at a point where it can be dangerous. However, many Braille blocks on Korean roads are often damaged or absent. Thus, we have implemented a mobile walking assistance app for people with visual impairments, which informs users' current location, sidewalk location, bus info with verbal feedback.
Related Publication(s)
Jiwon Yoo, DongHee Han, Chayoung Hur, Uran Oh. (2019) YOLO-based Walking Assistance Application for Blind People. Korea Computer Congress 2019. Participation Award for Student Paper Competition [PDF]
The Motivation
For users with visual impairments, who do not necessarily need the visual display of a mobile device, non-visual on-body interaction (e.g., Imaginary Interfaces) could provide accessible input in a mobile context. Such interaction provides the potential advantages of an always-available input surface, and increased tactile and proprioceptive feedback compared to a smooth touchscreen.
Related Publication(s)
Design of and Subjective Response to on-Body Input for People With Visual Impairments [PDF]
A Performance Comparison of on-Hand Versus on-Phone Nonvisual Input by Blind and Sighted Users [PDF]
Localization of Skin Features on the Hand and Wrist from Small Image Patches [PDF]
Investigating Microinteractions for People with Visual Impairments and the Potential Role of On-Body Interaction [PDF]
The Motivation
The vast majority of work on understanding and supporting the gesture creation process has focused on professional designers. In contrast, gesture customization by end users— which may offer better memorability, efficiency and accessibility than pre-defined gestures—has received little attention.
Related Publication(s)
The Challenges and Potential of End-User Gesture Customization [PDF]
The Motivation
Selfies have been a major social trend for many years. However, it can be challenging for people with visual impairments to take part in this activity although their use of social media is as high as sighted people. Thus, we designed and developed a mobile application for helping people with visual impairments with taking and managing selfies
Related Publication(s)
Yunjung Lee, hajung Kim, Hyeji Jang, Yujin Han, Uran Oh. (2019) Selfer: Selfie Guidance Mobile Application for the Blind. Proceedings of HCI Korea 2019. 971-975 [PDF]