Where's my stuff?: design and evaluation of a mobile system for locating lost items for the visually impaired

ABSTRACT

Finding lost items is a common problem for the visually impaired and is something that computing technology can help alleviate. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of a mobile solution, called FETCH, for allowing the visually impaired to track and locate objects they lose frequently but for which they do not have a specific strategy for tracking. FETCH uses devices the user already owns, such as their cell phone or laptop, to locate objects around their house. Results from a focus group with visually impaired users informed the design of the system. We then studied the usability of a laptop solution in a laboratory study and studied the usability and usefulness of the system through a one-month deployment and diary study. These studies demonstrate that FETCH is usable and useful, but there is still room for improvement.

REFERENCES

• 1: Cobalt Systems Colour Detector. http://www.cobolt.co.uk/. 2006.
• 2: Frank Dellaert , Sarah Tariq, A Multi-Camera Pose Tracker for Assisting the Visually Impaired, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR'05) - Workshops, p.31, June 20-26, 2005 [doi>10.1109/CVPR.2005.391]
• 3: Find One, Find All. http://www.findonefindall.com. 2006.
• 4: FindIT. http://www.ambitiousideas.com/findlostkeys.htm. 2006.
• 5: KeyRinger, http://www.keyringer.com. 2006.
• 6: Locator, The. Gloucestor Smart House. Bath Institute of Biomedical Engineering. Available at http://www.bath.ac.uk/bime/projects/smart/index.htm.
• 7: Hongshen Ma , Joseph A. Paradiso, The FindIT Flashlight: Responsive Tagging Based on Optically Triggered Microprocessor Wakeup, Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Ubiquitous Computing, p.160-167, September 29-October 01, 2002, Göteborg, Sweden
• 8: Nelson, Randal and Green, Isaac, "Tracking Objects Using Recognition", in International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR02), Quebec City, Quebec, August 2002, Volume 2, 1025--1039.
• 9: Note Teller. http://www.brytech.com/noteteller/. 2006.
• 10: Now you can find it! http://www.sharperimage.com. 2006.
• 11: Oh, Sang Min, Tariq, Sarah, Walker, Bruce, and Dellaert, Frank. "Map-based priors for localization." Proceedings of Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2004. 2004.
• 12: Peters, R.E., R. Pak, G.D. Abowd, A.D. Fisk, W.A. Rogers. "Finding Lost Objects: Informing the Design of Ubiquitous Computing Services for the Home." Georgia Tech GVU Technical Report: GIT-GVU 04-01. 2004.
• 13: David A. Ross , Alexander Lightman, Talking braille: a wireless ubiquitous computing network for orientation and wayfinding, Proceedings of the 7th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, October 09-12, 2005, Baltimore, MD, USA [doi>10.1145/1090785.1090805]
• 14: Scan-a-can - http://www.maxiaids.com/store/prodView.asp?idstore=6&id product=662&category=Scan/Read_Devices&product=Scan-A-Can_for_Windows_Deluxe
• 15: Sonic Key Finder. http://www.keyringer.com/sonic-keyfinder.html. 2006.
• 16: Walker, Bruce, and Lindsay, Jeff. "Auditory navigation performance is affected by waypoint capture radius." In Proc. of Auditory Display ICAD2004, Sydney. July 2004.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: User-centered design

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Prototyping

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.2 Social Issues
          Subjects: Assistive technologies for persons with disabilities

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors

Keywords:
assistive technology, item location, mobile technology, ubiquitous computing, visually impaired