To Örebro University

Persons with severe visual impairment (VI), blindness (B) and deafblindness (DB) have difficulties in mobility and thereby poor leisure time. Activities as horseback riding become difficult especially for persons with DB who communicate with an assistant/instructor via tactile sign language and need to stop and get information/feedback.

Ready-Ride, a tactile communications system can improve the mobility of the persons with B and DB by making distance communication possible. It consists of transmitter with four buttons which communicates via Bluetooth with a receiver connected to four vibrators via cables. The button(s) are used to activate the specific vibrator(s). The messages can consist of simple "right" or "left" or more complex codes for any needed instruction.

Ready-Ride has been evaluated in the riding arena by persons with B and DB who consider it as mobile, easy to use and no need for long introduction or installation of any software/hardware. The vibrations are intuitive, easy to detect and distinguish. The system gives the rider information tactually without disturbing other persons or horses nearby. Using Ready-Ride they got more time to ride and the quality was increased since they could communicate while riding and get immediate feedback directly.

One of the riders with DB has been using the system during a long period, in average one lesson a week and participated in different competitions with good results. She says that the use of Ready- Ride is crucial for continued riding, "Ready-Ride is a MUST BEE".

There are approx. 1300 people with deafblindnes (DB) in Sweden where about 100 of them are with complete deafness (D) and blindness (B). The number will reach about 30000 if we also include people older than 65 with severe visual impairment (VI) and hearing impairment (HI) and several million worldwide.  Difficulties in time perception, environmental perception, music perception, mobility, social participation and communication are examples of their frequent problems. Five haptic technical aids are developed to reduce these problems. Distime is an application in a smart phone to inform the user about the planned activities by choosing different information channel depending on the sense that works and her/his ability. The activities can be presented as sound or vibrations for users with B; as images, movies and also as vibrations for those with D and vibrations for those with DB. Monitor informs users with D and DB about ongoing events with the aim to increase their environmental perception. Using an specific algorithm for environmental sounds, it converts the audible sounds produced by events to sensible vibrations which can be sensed and interpreted as events. Good Vibrations uses an specific algorithm for music and converts the audible music to vibrations which can be felt with the aim to increase music perception for users with severe HI, D/DB as well as for users with normal hearing who want extra enhanced experience of the music. Ready-Ride is a positioning and communication aid to improve the mobility of riders with severe VI, B or DB. It is used for distance communication between a trainer and a rider with VI where the trainer can send information about the rider’s position give commands or feedback about the riding. VibroBraille informs users with B/DB about the short notifications received from different applications in her/his cell phone. It converts the text to its corresponding Braille pattern where the active points are vibrating.

Morse code has been used as a communications system at a distance to transmit text through tone or light pulses. This comparative study aims to test and evaluate the vibrotactile identification of Morse coded signals communicating instructions for movement. The pulses were presented on abdomen and wrist among 14 males (40-85 yr) experienced in acoustic Morse code and the rate of pulses was 12 words per minute using a Vibration Motor mounted in a plastic holder. There identification results were statistically significantly better on wrist compared to abdomen. Words were identified significantly better on the wrist as compared to abdomen but the identification results of the letters were equally good in both placements. There was a negative correlation between age and the pooled identification results tested on wrist PCC r=-0.45 (p<0.02). The participants rank ordered the wrist, over the abdomen, as the best place for positioning the vibrator. The results support haptic/tactile interaction research in positioning and communication system. Our future plans are to apply the results to the project "Ready Ride" for instructions for horseback riding for people with deafblindness as well as activity and movement for elderly people with impaired vision and hearing.

PIM is an acronym for Passive InterModulation, an interference problem in wireless systems. The problem is not new, but has been known since long time back by designers of, for instance cell phone systems, space probes, connectors, coaxial cables, antennas and filters. The problem most frequently occurs, when dealing with high RF-currents in confined spaces. In this text, the basic theories behind PIM will be briefly discussed.

This demonstration presents three vibrotactile aids to support personswith deafblindness. One aid, Monitor, consists of a microphone that detectssounds from events which are then processed as a signal that is adapted to thesensitivity range of the skin. The signal is sent as vibrations to the user withdeafblindness, who can interpret the pattern of the vibrations in order to identifythe type and position of the event/source that produced the sounds. Another aid,Distime, uses a smart phone app that informs the user with cognitive impairmentand deafblindness about a planned activity through; audio, visual or tactileinteraction that is adapted to the abilities of each individual. The last aid, Ready-ride, uses two smart phones and up to 11 vibrators that help the horse back riderwith deafblindness to communicate with the instructor from a distance viavibrators placed on different parts of the riders body e.g. wrist, thigh, back, ankle.

Introduction: Persons with deafblindness have frequently difficulties in e.g. environmental perception, spatial awareness, time perception, social participation and music experience. To experience independence, participation and control, adequate processing of sensory information is important.

PIM is an acronym for Passive InterModulation, an interference problem in wireless systems. The problem is not new, but has been known since long time back by designers of, for instance cell phone systems, space probes, connectors, coaxial cables, antennas and filters. The problem most frequently occurs, when dealing with high RF-currents in confined spaces. In this text, the basic theories behind PIM will be briefly discussed.