Touch tracking analysis for graphics image acquisition by the visually impaired: Toward understanding graphical image creation by touch-sensing

One of the problems regarding graphics for blind individual is that we have few data on how he (she) acquires graphical information through touching. In this article, we propose a method of tracking the touch point of his (her) fingertip on graphics material using cameras (an analog of eye-tracking) for analyzing the image acquisition process. We exhibit the method on an edge-outlined tactile picture of a flower and show that it yields basic features of the original outlined flower by an experiment relying on a visually impaired subject. As a linked yet remotely material in Section 3.1 we describe our other application of online tactile map in which we have introduced the idea of sharing positional information between touching a tactile picture and looking into a graphical picture using a tracking technology.