hey yaa - wearable to support deaf communication

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 WearableTo Support Deaf People Communication

CRIWG 2011Research Problem

> How to call someone and start a conversation

when there is no visual contact, no physical

contact and no possibility of sound?

CRIWG 2011Research 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,

CRIWG 2011Research Problem

> How hearing impaired are warned about:

doorbells, telephones, fire alarms?

CRIWG 2011

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

Research Problem

CRIWG 2011Background

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.

CRIWG 2011Research question

deaf people ill people elderly

How to support people who wish to communicatewhen they don`t have physical and visual contact and cannot count on sound and speech?

CRIWG 2011Context

- Ubiquitous computing

- Wearables

CRIWG 2011Proposition

- 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.

CRIWG 2011Concept

- One calling someone else

CRIWG 2011Concept

- Environmental alerts

(doorbells, fire alarms, alarm clocks)

CRIWG 2011Concept

- Group notification

(when someone gets too far away)

CRIWG 2011Scripts

- How can this device change daily routine?

CRIWG 2011Design 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?

CRIWG 2011First 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

CRIWG 2011First prototype

- how does it look like?

- pair of belts

CRIWG 2011

- arduino: open source platform for hardware prototyping

- lilypad: wearable components for arduino, sensors and actuators

- xbee: wireless transmitter/receiver

First prototype

CRIWG 2011

- exploratory case study

> 1st: questionnarie and interview

- 5 talking volunteers

- print manual

> 2nd: focus group

- 10 deaf volunteers

- translator needed

Evaluation

CRIWG 20111st 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

CRIWG 2011Results

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

CRIWG 20112nd 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

CRIWG 2011Results

- 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

CRIWG 2011Conclusion

- 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

CRIWG 2011Further development

- long lasting evaluation

- multiple users, group, broadcast

- try communication codes

- connect to environment devices

such as doorbell

CRIWG 2011Video

CRIWG 2011Thank you!

- special thanks to Deaf Pastoral of Rio de Janeiro

and all other volunteers

Maria Paula - design@mariapaulasaba.com

Denise - dfilippo@esdi.uerj.br