From the October Braille Forum

ANOTHER STEP FORWARD IN MAKING COMPUTER SCREENS ACCESSIBLE

by Arie Gamliel

Ever since the mid-'90s, the company Virtouch Ltd. has been engaged in an
ongoing effort to make computer screens more accessible to people who are
blind and visually impaired. At the heart of this effort is a technology
which can be described as a kind of tactile mouse. This device, when moved
across a flat surface, can reproduce tactile representations of graphics on
finger-sized displays.

The concepts behind Virtouch are largely the brain child of one man, Dr.
Roman Gouzman. A cognitive psychologist and an immigrant from the former
Soviet Union to Israel, Gouzman established Virtouch Ltd. and sought out
software and hardware developers and business and marketing strategists.
And, equally important, he sought out the views of blind people themselves
for whom the product is intended. This is not a common practice in Israel.
Many blind children, a crucial target group, have spent many hours playing
with the device and rendering feedback. As a blind person myself who is
professionally involved in the education of blind children, I have also
endeavored to assist with the product's development.

The first-generation Virtouch product, called the VTMouse, was quite a bit
larger and more complex than it is today. It certainly was larger than the
average mouse. It had three tactile displays on top. Each display, which
was designed to have a finger placed upon it, contained 32 vibrating rods
or pins. These pins were similar to those found in most current braille
displays. In fact, the device could not only reproduce simulated graphics,
but braille as well. Gouzman hoped that the product might evolve into a
low-cost braille display. In addition, audio feedback was provided.

What could one do with it? First, it could reproduce tactile simulations of
images and figures. For instance, it could reproduce images of facial
expressions, human organs, graphs and charts. Second, it could reproduce
geographical maps, both physical and political. Third, it could add a
tactile dimension to already-available computer games which featured audio
output. Fourth, the device could provide an dimension to information
delivered by existing computer applications such as Microsoft Office, and
especially to Internet browsing.

Unfortunately, the full potential of the original VTMouse has not been
realized to date and the project had to be put on hold, because the
development of a dynamic braille display was more complicated than
anticipated. And while the device was less expensive than any other braille
display or tactile mouse, it was still expensive enough to prohibit mass
sales. Accordingly a reassessment of the product was undertaken and the
concepts and design were modified.

At present, the product is called the Virtouch VTPlayer. It was launched
onto the market on January 15, 2003 at the ATIA Exhibition in Orlando, Fla.
As the name implies, this version is somewhat scaled down. This is true of
both the concept and design. The current product looks almost exactly like
the average computer mouse. It has two tactile displays on top, each
consisting of 16 vibrating pins. There are four controls or buttons, two on
each side. In fact, it includes all of the functions of a regular Windows
mouse in addition to its unique capabilities as a tactile, immersive,
multimedia device. Thus, whatever else might be said of this new mouse, it
is more maneuverable than its predecessor.

At the heart of the software currently available is a series of games which
I suspect will keep the children enthralled for hours upon hours, and might
well get the parents hooked too. These include, but are not limited to,
racing a motorcycle over an obstacle course, a shooting gallery where you
have to knock off ducks and wolves of various types (but not the
technician), a hide-and-seek game where you have to locate friendly and
other animals in the fields, a space war game where you have to shoot down
your constantly moving opponent, and a mine-sweeping game. All these games
have the aforementioned verbal and audio clues, as well as tactile and
graphic representations of the action. There are extensive online help
files and various levels of increasing complexity and difficulty. Some of
these games can be played by two players, such as by blind and sighted
siblings. To me this represents a significant leveling of the playing field
of which I hope to see more.

The last item I was shown was the tactile maps. These were carried over
from the previous Virtouch machine. By moving the device across the map one
can keep track of land masses, seas, and political boundaries. For
instance, you can move up and down the east coast of the United States and
identify which states have coastlines. You can move across the country and
check out the size and shape of the various states. You can push one of the
buttons on the mouse and get audio information about the various states,
such as population and capital city. These maps have yet to be further
developed so that they can also display the locations of various cities,
mountains and rivers, as was the case with the previous product.

What then is the bottom line? This product is certainly much more
affordable than the original VTMouse, costing much less than many common
play stations on the market. A nice switch! Even individual families can
buy it and not have to go without lunch.

The device is easy to install. You plug it into a USB port, install the
software and away you go. The various applications and games are not
difficult to learn but they are challenging enough to keep the user busy
for some time, while he/she hurls various invectives at the computer.
Finally, the software appears to be open-ended, which is to say that more
should be coming down the pike in the months to come.

In short, schools and educational facilities serving blind kids should
seriously consider purchasing the Virtouch VTPlayer. All of the games are
designed from the ground up to serve a "cognitive" role. In playing them,
the child gains skills, in terms of understanding spatial relationships,
tactile differentiation, a sense of relative direction, comprehension of
braille symbols, developing a mental "picture" of complexity and so on.

If you are a parent (or grandparent) of a blind child and the child is
nagging you to get a computer game or play station, this is it.

The company management tells me that in addition to the current
child-oriented focus, plans are in the works to develop the VTPlayer as a
platform for a whole variety of applications, such as software for the
reproduction of mathematical equations, graphs, software programming,
modeling language skills, and much more.

It would appear that adults and blind professionals should keep informed.
For more information, to find a local distributor, or to purchase the
VTPlayer directly from the manufacturer, visit www.virtouch.com. The device
sells for $695.

*****


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html