Presented at CRIWG 2011, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro.

1. Maria Paula Saba, Denise Filippo,
Fernando Reiszel Pereira, Pedro P. de Souza
Superior School of Industrial Design - ESDI/UERJ
CRIWG - Paraty, 2011
A Haptic Warning Wearable
To Support Deaf People Communication

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Research Problem
> How to call someone and start a conversation
when there is no visual contact, no physical
contact and no possibility of sound?

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Research Problem
> This might sound very impossible or rare.
But it is quite common, specially when:
- people have hearing and speaking disabilities,
- people are riding bikes,
- people are in a noisy crowd,

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Research Problem
> How hearing impaired are warned about:
doorbells, telephones, fire alarms?

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By visual signs. But if they are not looking at it?
Research Problem

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Background
Graham Bell would give balloons to deaf children
so they could be aware of horse carriages
while playing in the streets.
They just felt its VIBRATION.

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Research question
deaf people ill people elderly
How to support people who wish to communicate
when they don`t have physical and visual contact and
cannot count on sound and speech?

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Context
- Ubiquitous computing
- Wearables

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Proposition
- Communication channel for haptic warnings
through a wearable device.
- System allow users to draw other user’s attention through
haptic sensation without using voice/ vision/ physical contact.

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Concept
- One calling someone else

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Concept
- Environmental alerts
(doorbells, fire alarms, alarm clocks)

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Concept
- Group notification
(when someone gets too far away)

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Scripts
- How can this device change daily routine?

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Design guidelines
- ubiquitous
- peripheral position at user’s attention
- to be used in daily routine: accessory
- easy to carry
- easy handling (urgent tasks)
- strong vibration in a sensitive area
- automatic feedback
- aesthetics: computer or clothing?

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First prototype
- exploratory case study
- “I want to talk to you”
- one press the button, the other feels vibrating
while one receives feedback
- public: deaf people

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First prototype
- how does it look like?
- pair of belts

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- arduino: open source platform for hardware prototyping
- lilypad: wearable components for arduino, sensors and actuators
- xbee: wireless transmitter/receiver
First prototype

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- exploratory case study
> 1st: questionnarie and interview
- 5 talking volunteers
- print manual
> 2nd: focus group
- 10 deaf volunteers
- translator needed
Evaluation

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1st evaluation
> 5 people:
- 3 young / 2 adults
- 3 women / 2 men
- 4 hearing / 1 disabled
> tasks:
- wear the belt, make it work, walk around in other rooms
or out of the building and return when he/she felt it vibrating
- questionnaire and interview

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Results
INTERFACE
> All leanerd quickly and considered easy to dress and to feel vibrating,
comfortable, aesthetically neutral, but difficult to turn on (lilypad switch)
> 3 of 5 interested in different levels of vibration, concerned about electrick
shocks and not bothered by eletronic components appearance
COMMUNICATION
> easy to call and to feel the call, feedback vibration really useful
- walkie talkie concept: own code for communicating
- hearing impaired girl wanted to buy regardless of price

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2nd evaluation
> 10 people:
- from the same pastoral group
- 10 deaf adults - 6 women / 4 men
> tasks:
- 3 minutes explanation
- try the system freely, with group interaction
- group interview with translator

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Results
- all enjoyed the idea
- all women tried, all men didn’t
- good and beautiful (but hot under clothing)
- curiosity about maximum distance
- vibration might bot be strong enough
- places to use: home, work and parties
- question about how much it costs
- suggested scenarios

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Conclusion
- proposition well accepted, indicating wearable computing and haptic
communication can improve deaf people’s lives
- design guidelines fit well
- need of better hardware design
“perfect” in LIBRAS

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Further development
- long lasting evaluation
- multiple users, group, broadcast
- try communication codes
- connect to environment devices
such as doorbell

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Video

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Thank you!
- special thanks to Deaf Pastoral of Rio de Janeiro
and all other volunteers
Maria Paula - design@mariapaulasaba.com
Denise - dfilippo@esdi.uerj.br