TY - JOUR
T1 - Recognition of tactile facial action units by individuals who are blind and sighted
T2 - A comparative study
AU - McDaniel, Troy
AU - Tran, Diep
AU - Chowdhury, Abhik
AU - Fakhri, Bijan
AU - Panchanathan, Sethuraman
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION, grant number 1828010.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2019/6
Y1 - 2019/6
N2 - Given that most cues exchanged during a social interaction are nonverbal (e.g., facial expressions, hand gestures, body language), individuals who are blind are at a social disadvantage compared to their sighted peers. Very little work has explored sensory augmentation in the context of social assistive aids for individuals who are blind. The purpose of this study is to explore the following questions related to visual-to-vibrotactile mapping of facial action units (the building blocks of facial expressions): (1) How well can individuals who are blind recognize tactile facial action units compared to those who are sighted? (2) How well can individuals who are blind recognize emotions from tactile facial action units compared to those who are sighted? These questions are explored in a preliminary pilot test using absolute identification tasks in which participants learn and recognize vibrotactile stimulations presented through the Haptic Chair, a custom vibrotactile display embedded on the back of a chair. Study results show that individuals who are blind are able to recognize tactile facial action units as well as those who are sighted. These results hint at the potential for tactile facial action units to augment and expand access to social interactions for individuals who are blind.
AB - Given that most cues exchanged during a social interaction are nonverbal (e.g., facial expressions, hand gestures, body language), individuals who are blind are at a social disadvantage compared to their sighted peers. Very little work has explored sensory augmentation in the context of social assistive aids for individuals who are blind. The purpose of this study is to explore the following questions related to visual-to-vibrotactile mapping of facial action units (the building blocks of facial expressions): (1) How well can individuals who are blind recognize tactile facial action units compared to those who are sighted? (2) How well can individuals who are blind recognize emotions from tactile facial action units compared to those who are sighted? These questions are explored in a preliminary pilot test using absolute identification tasks in which participants learn and recognize vibrotactile stimulations presented through the Haptic Chair, a custom vibrotactile display embedded on the back of a chair. Study results show that individuals who are blind are able to recognize tactile facial action units as well as those who are sighted. These results hint at the potential for tactile facial action units to augment and expand access to social interactions for individuals who are blind.
KW - Haptics
KW - Nonverbal
KW - Sensory augmentation
KW - Social assistive aids
KW - Tactile facial action units
KW - Tactile-vision sensory substitution
KW - Technologies for individuals who are blind
KW - Vibrotactile
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U2 - 10.3390/mti3020032
DO - 10.3390/mti3020032
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85076151729
SN - 2414-4088
VL - 3
JO - Multimodal Technologies and Interaction
JF - Multimodal Technologies and Interaction
IS - 2
M1 - 32
ER -