Background:
According to the WHO report, around 4.07% of the world's population is visually impaired.
About 90% of the visually impaired users live in the lower economic strata. In the fast moving technology, most of the
invention misses the need of these people. Mainly the technologies were designed for mainstream people; visually
impaired people always find an inability to access it. This inability arises primarily for reasons such as cost, for example,
Perkins Brailler costs 80-248 dollars for the simple purpose of Braille input. Another major reason is the hassle of
carrying the big equipment.
Objective:
Keeping all this in mind and making technology as their best friends, MAGIC-1 has been designed. The goal
is to provide a solution in terms of an application, which helps the visually impaired user in their daily life activities.
Method:
The proposed solution assists visually impaired users through smart phone technology. If visually impaired users
ever wished to have a touched guide into a smart phone, MAGIC-1 has the solution that consolidates all the important
features in their daily activities.
Results:
The performance of the solution as a whole and its individual features in terms of usability, utility and other
metrics, etc. has been tested with sample visually impaired users. Moreover, their performances in term of Errors per
Word and Words per Minute have been observed.
Conclusion:
MAGIC-I, the proposed solution works as an assistant of visually impaired users to overcome their daily
struggles and stay more connected to the world. A visually impaired user can communicate via their mobile devices with
features like eyes free texting using braille, voice calling etc. They can easily take help in an emergency situation with the
options of SOS emergency calling and video assistance.
Research on Methods of "Touching the World" ―The Aim of the Exhibit Area of Tactile Learning in Japan’s National Museum of Ethnology
