A speculative concept for a tactile mapping system that enables individuals with visual impairments to explore and understand places. It is based on an innovative shape-changing display that makes information tangible.
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Navigating a foreign city is challenging. Modern map applications have reduced this struggle. For the visually impaired, routing functions and voice output make simple navigation from point A to B possible.This however, does not convey the vast amount of information that sighted people gain while using digital maps.
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Inspired by MIT’s inFORM project, Detact envisions a future tactile display with high-resolution, movable pins. This speculative concept explores its potential use in a portable mapping device.
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We explored how to represent points of interest tactually by testing braille, icons, and ultimately choosing abstract forms from a 1970s research project that were designed to be simple, unique, and easy to distinguish.
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After further test series for areas and routes, we arrived at a system with which we could construct the 3D models for our tactile maps in a modular fashion.
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We created four maps of the same place, varying in scale and information density, to demonstrate different use cases.
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Visually impaired users responded positively. They could quickly learn the system and found it potentially useful in everyday life, especially those with long-term blindness.
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