Capacitive Touch Sensitive Vibro-Haptic Typing Training System for the Visually Impaired
The proposed system implements a vibro-haptic glove device which works in tandem to a customized computer keyboard with capacitive touch sensitivity, facilitating a fast-paced typing method for the visually impaired. A normal keyboard is retro-fitted with a “capacitive sense” membrane that activates on human touch, along with a pair of fingerless haptic gloves with vibrators on each finger and a pair of Bluetooth earphones. The visually impaired user receives audible and haptic cues facilitating learning to type the correct key using the right finger on the computer keyboard. This utilizes the Passive-Haptic-Learning (PHL) paradigm for fast paced multisensory learning. A group of blind students were chosen and trained on this system for one month. There were pre and post training assessments conducted, and their scores compared. The findings showcased positive results.