Haptic Prototype Assembly Tool for Non-Sighted, Visually Impaired and Fully Sighted Design Students, Studying at a Distance

Abstract

Designers are known to use a blend of manual and virtual processes to produce design prototype solutions. However, often virtual processes can limit the designers’ feeling of being “hands-on” with materials and processes. The rise of virtual haptic tools has afforded great potential for designers to feel more “hands-on” with the virtual modelling processes. This paper presents an investigation of an inclusive educational haptic tool and interface. The Geomagic Touch TM device is the selected haptic technology used within the investigation. It is haptic technology which allows users the chance to interact with 3D design via a single point of contact. The haptic rendered interface was designed to facilitate a prototype design process for non-sighted – visually impaired and fully sighted distance learners from The Open University. The parameters examined were (a) Duration – measured against an industry standard time taken to assemble a four block prototype, and (b) Collision rate – caused by participant between colliding with 3D geometric block during assembly. The results showed that the duration data was within the accepted industry standard, of 5 minutes, and there was little significant difference between duration and collision rate between-groups, indicating that the haptic and designed interface had offered an open accessible tool to both NS-VI as well as FS design students.