The Mobile Virtual Cane by Steven Battersby

1. THE VIRTUAL CANE Designing for
the Periphery
& The Mobile
ITAG 2012 Cane

2. ABOUT ME
 Steve n B a t te r s by
 B y D ay
 Member of ISRG
 Software Developer
 AT Developer
 NERD
 By Night
 GEEK
 Maker - Open Hardware Developer
 Robot Enthusiast
 www.isrg.org.uk
 www.dyadica.co.uk

3. WHAT IS
THE
VIRTUAL
CANE
It‟s NOT a Wii
Controller it‟s an
Intuitive
Interface aka a
Natural User
Interface…
Empowers those
with visual
impairment to
access 3D virtual
spaces
It‟s NOT an
application of
W i i m o t e AT ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

4. THE
VIRTUAL
SPACE
C I B C l i f to n to p
floor
E x p l o r a to r y
i nv e s t i g a t i o n o f
space
Allan, where is
the fire escape
eh?

5. THE CANE
CLOSE UP
- - Yaw
- - Pitch
- - Ro l l
S l av i n g o f r e a l
world
o r i e n t a t io n to
that of virtual
c o u n te rp a r t

6. 2011 - NATURAL USER INTERFACE
 The ability to draw upon the investments in skill we make to
undertake the activities of our everyday living experience, as a
means to define methods for input modality has many
advantages.
 This is true for all user demographics.
 Immediate familiarity with methods for interfacing, intuitively gifting
users of the system with capability for basic interaction.
 Buxton (2010) describes such interfaces as “natural” detailing
that an interface is natural if it “exploits skills that we have
acquired through a lifetime of living in the world.”
 Blake (2010) furthers this definition by determining that an
interface is natural if it is designed to utilise human behaviour
for interacting directly with content.

7. WHERE WE LEFT OFF 2011

8. 2011 – UBICOMP & THE VIRTUAL CANE
 „ T h e m o s t p r o fo u n d te c h n o l o g i e s a r e
t h o s e t h a t d i s a p p e a r. T h ey we av e
t h e m s e l v e s i n to t h e f a b r i c o f e v e r y d ay
l i fe u n t i l t h ey a r e i n d i s t i n g u i s h a b l e
from it‟
 (Weiser, 1991).
 „ J u s t a s a g o o d , we l l - b a l a n c e d h a m m e r
“disappears” in the hands of a
c a r p e n te r a n d a l l ow s h i m to
c o n c e n t r a t e o n t h e b i g p i c t u r e , we h o p e
t h a t c o m p u te r s c a n p a r t i c i p a t e i n a
similar magic disappearing act‟
 (Weiser et al., 1999 ).
 W h a t i f w e d e f i n e d A s s i s t i v e Te c h n o l o g y
l i ke t h i s ?
 W h a t i f w e v i ew e d Te c h n o l o g y a s a
prosthesis of the individual ?
 Te c h n o l o g i e s t h a t e n c a l m ?

9. TECHNOLOGIES THAT ENCALM
 In Designing Calm Technology , Weiser and John Seely Brown
(1996) provide warning that whilst technological infusion has
the great potential to improve and enhance our life
experience, it also has the potential to impede and restrict it.
 Hmmm…. 00001000001011001010010100010010010000011
 In order to address this issue they describe the ethos of
technologies that “encalm” as a manifesto for our future
relationships with technology.
 Must have bought a Betamax back in 80‟s?

10. WHAT IS
THE
PERIPHERY
Our periphery is
our
connectedness to
the world as
defined by our
skills and senses
and their
capabilities.
Or our personal
boundary of
perception made
up of detail
provided by our
senses and
experiences.
Moped 

11. WHY DESIGN FOR THE PERIPHERY?
 By placing technologies within the periphery we are able to
become attuned to them, allowing them to be selectively and
subconsciously called upon to inform detail.
 This in turn af fords us with an increased ability to attune to
multisensory detail and thus, a greater level of knowledge to
inform both response and our perceived locatedness”.

12. INFUSION OF NUI & DFP
 From the infusion of the concept of designing for the
periphery, with that of the Natural User Interface we can
derive a powerful and innovative means for the application
and development of interfaces.
 Interfaces of which from the outset we are familiar, but that
also af ford us with an enormous volume of detail.

13. PERIPHERY MAPPING
 “As a PE the cane enables a user with an enhanced perception of
their environment in many ways. The most immediate and
obvious being indication of future potential of obstacles and
hazards that may appear within our environment, however when
viewed in terms of the peripher y the cane also provides an
operator with much more detail than this .
 Movement across the ground affords additional information such
as texture via subtle nuances in vibration; this is fur ther
enhanced via the sound transition across par ticular materials.
 Over time a DT naturally develops a database of such peripheral
cues allowing for the identification of the construct of their
environment as a visual non impaired user we do the same by
also collecting cues from the peripher y .”

14. PERIPHERY MAPPING
 “At the same time both auditor y and touch senses provide cues
that indicate it is raining, this is fur thered by the subtle
reduction in friction the cane makes as it is moved across the
surface of travel, in conjunction sound subtly dampened whilst
also complimented by the swish made by the movement that
experience indicates to be water.”
 “A slight change in balance indicates the possibility of an
incline, however the canes balance in the hand during a
concurrent sweep remains similar, a lack of additional pressure
on both the fingers and palm indicates resulting and suggesting
that in fact we are just on a bump in the road, differing volumes
of pressure on the ball, arch and heel of the foot clarify this fact.
This is fur thered by our innate proprioceptive functions that tell
us our foot in fact parallel to the other just slightly rose in
height.”

15. WHAT IS
THE
PERIPHERY
Our periphery is
our
connectedness to
the world as
defined by our
skills and senses
and their
capabilities.
Or our personal
boundary of
perception made
up of detail
provided by our
senses and
experiences.
Moped 

16. THE
MOBILE
CANE
Ru n n i n g o n
both PC and
M o b i le
C o m m un i c a t io n
via Multicast

17. OPEN HARDWARE SOLUTION[S]

18. BREAKOUT CANE 2012

19. CURRENT WORKS

20. FUTURE WORKS