Project Abstract

This project explores the effects of haptic feedback through the back of a device on a user?��s emotions ?�� specifically regarding reducing stress and / or anxiety. It focusses on people with a visual impairment who may struggle in social spaces, for example in a library, to estimate how many people are around them. As a result, their disability could leave the user with increased feelings of stress / anxiety as they are unable to paint a fully formed picture of their surroundings. This prototype aims to build upon successful products already on the market that have aided blind people; a notable example being the feature on Google Maps where the user can opt to receive communications via haptic feedback. The goal of the prototype is to help users paint this mental picture and ultimately to reduce stress / anxiety. It takes results from a pir sensor and sorts the readings into categories of busyness and feeds back the results to the user through a dc motor on the back of the phone case. A user study was conducted to see how the project performs with users and against the objectives of the project and the results show that this prototype provides effective haptic feedback, is easy to use and has the potential to decrease stress / anxiety.

Keywords: Human-Computer Interaction, ,

 Conference Details

Session: Poster Session A at Poster Stand 19

Location: Sir Stanley Clarke Auditorium at Tuesday 7th 13:30 – 17:00

Markers: Jen Pearson, Alma Rahat

Course: BSc Computer Science FI, 3rd Year

Future Plans: I’m looking for work