1. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Visualization of textual information for people with special needs 10.01.2004 Presentation for UCIT seminar Tatiana Evreinova Multimodal Interaction Research Group Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction

2. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Contents Main research tasks for 2003 and 2004 (1) Pseudo-graphic typeface initial study (8) readability study in dynamically displayed mode: testing and apparatus (2) results, drawbacks and prospective applications (6) Forthcoming research: design of vibro-tactile alphabet (3) References (1)

3. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Two main research problems –Usability evaluation of the pseudo-graphic typeface –Design and implementation of a new vibro-tactile alphabet

4. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Pseudo - Graphic Typeface: Design and Evaluation

5. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Problems –lip reading requires a great concentration of visual attention and can be very stressful –even qualified sign language interpreters cannot interpret everything in group situations –the usage of subtitling signing has a high level of transmission difficulties and still remains as an extremely expensive method of information imaging

6. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction experimental setup Goals –to develop communication techniques through graphical imaging of textual information for the profoundly deaf and hard-of-hearing people –to find out an approach that would require minimum resources of visual perception by using pseudo- graphic tokens; these tokens must be perceived preattentively and reduce cognitive loading

7. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Design(1/2) To facilitate associative interpretation new tokens were mapped through eight directions

8. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Design(2/2)

9. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction –constructive research to design and simulate the new techniques for textual imaging, software tools and algorithms for visibility evaluation of graphic tokens –empirical research based on tracking of the eye movements subjective / objective evaluation: tachistoscopic evaluation visual scan time measurement Research methods used

10. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Materials Selected TypefacesMotivation to select the typeface Arial The most commonly used sans serif font (1, 2, 3) Comic The mimic print facilitates syllabic tokens perception (1) Courier The most commonly used mono-spaced font (3) Impact Easy to perceive on screen, a large x- height factor (2, 4) Times New High legibility with economy of screen space (2) 8-directional simplified layout

11. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Resources SMI Eye-Gaze tracking system allows recording eye movements iComponent provides a possibility to use SMI Eye_Gaze data in other application through a simple interface [developed by Oleg Spakov] iView 3.01 program processes SMI Eye_Gaze data and displays saccadic movements (row data), fixations and scanpaths Experimental software Font Reader [developed by Oleg Spakov]

12. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Generalization of obtained results A higher number of AVI observed for phonetic typefaces (5-7) and lower one for Styled typeface (only 4) confirms that explored typeface is more easily perceived. Impact and Styled seemed to be more legible than Courier, Arial, Comic and Times New Roman and being the most preferred, could be perceived fairly preattentively. Subjects had fewer recognition difficulties for Arial and Times New Roman typefaces. For font attractiveness, Comic was perceived as being more attractive than Arial and Courier, while Styled and Impact were perceived as more attractive than Times New Roman.

13. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Pseudo - Graphic Typeface: Readability study in dynamically displayed mode

14. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Testing –Eight volunteers from staff and students at the University of Tampere took part in the testing and were recruited from those subjects who participated in previous study –Tested subjects were needed about 2 hours to learn the whole alphabet –Formal experiment had taken one week –20 words per each block to measure alphabet readability –3 trials per each exposition time, 4 blocks per one session –Four exposition times were examined (320, 400, 480 and 640 ms per token) –A possibility to replay tested word as much as it is needed

15. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Apparatus snapshot of the software in editorial mode snapshot of the software during the testing

16. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Results / Reading comprehension Reading comprehension score to 7 th session (X-axis) by one of subjects was measured by number of repeated playbacks (Y-axis) needed to recognize textual passage Exposition time

17. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Results / Reading time Reading time in seconds (X-axis) needed to recognize textual passages having different number of characters (Y-axis), first (A) and seventh (B) sessions (longer bars indicate longer reading time) AB Exposition time

18. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Results / Comprehension accuracy Reading comprehension rate (% correct, Y-axis) by presentation rate

19. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Results / Subjective ratings Post-test questionnaire results (n = 8) Subjects were more satisfied with reading textual passages at presentation rates 640 and 480 ms per token. They felt eyestrain with the reading typeface at presentation rate of 400 ms Seven of eight subjects felt positive of using this typeface on the regular basis N. B.

20. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Drawbacks –A problem to distinguish repeated patterns during of dynamic presentation (for example in the words “pattern” or “look”) –It is difficult to follow the changing of letters because of different directions they have –Subjects get quickly tired with reading of the pseudo- graphic typeface at higher presentation rates and even feel slight headache and eyestrain afterwards

21. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Prospective applications development of new communication techniques for strengthening of visual and linguistic feedback between the deaf/hard-of-hearing people and digital television environment

22. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Forthcoming research: Design of vibro- tactile alphabet(1/3) The perception of vibro-tactile patterns occurs in the tactile analyzer using similar algorithms through which the visual system processes a temporal structure of the afferent flow. The dynamic range for tactile analyzer is narrow in comparison to its visual and auditory counterparts, however the number of possible states of an afferent flow at the time of stimulation of tactile receptors can have many more levels than was previously observed (more than 125). Non-visual tactile feedback can be applicable in blind manipulation as well as in the situation when the vision is occupied in some other tasks.

23. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Forthcoming research (2/3) I propose to design a specific vibro-tactile alphabet oriented on the stimulation of the tactile receptors of touch and skin to develop an alternative communication technique through vibro- tactile imaging of the textual information for the profoundly deaf and hard-of-hearing people.

24. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Forthcoming research (3/3) A new Grigori Evreinov’s game for training tactile feedback (1, 2, 3 – game levels) Developed software simplifies learning and validation of the system of vibration tactones and strengthens fingertips sensitivity. The tool allows validation of the nine tactones. Three groups of the tactons for the vibro-tactile alphabet imaging will be examined. Using the game mode facilitates direct usability testing and systematic data collection as well as it decreases subjective workload during the experiment. 1 23 …up to 9

25. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction References [1] Bernard M., Mills M., Frank T., McKown J (2001). Which font do children prefer to read online? Usability News 3.1. [2] Boyardski D., Neuwirth C., Forlizzi J., Regli (1998). A study of fonts designed for screen display. In proceedings of CHI’ 98, (April 18-23, Los Angeles), pp. 87-94. [3] Evreinova Tatiana and Roope Raisamo. Communication aid based on pseudo- graphic typeface: readability study in continuous mode. Will be submitted to the IFHOH 7 th World Congress, which will be held in Helsinki, Finland from the 4 th July to the 7 th July 2004, 8 pp. (full paper). [4] Evreinov Grigori, Evreinova Tatiana and Roope Raisamo. Games for training tactile memory. Late-breaking results, 4 pp. (full paper). [5] Mills C. B. & Weldon L. J (1987). Reading text from computer screens. ACM Computing Surveys, 19 (4), pp. 329-358.

26. TAUCHI – Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction Thanks for your attention Questions?