Mad Maze: Obstacle-Based Vibrotactile Guidance

We introduce a new obstacle-based vibrotactile guidance for vision-impaired. Instead of indicating to turn left by vibrating left, we construct an environment with virtual walls around a path. In case a wall is touched, we apply haptic feedback on the side of the wall to simulate the contact. This can be used to guide vision-impaired people on a path, e.g. a pavement. When leaving the path, a user is notified and guided back by vibrotactile feedback with a rough direction (front, left, right, back) at the side where he or she should not go. An evaluation in a real-world experiment is performed to prove the workload, usability, comfort, and motivation.Clinical relevance- A similar approach can be used to guide clinicians operating in environments exhibiting hazards like invisible x-rays or moving medical systems (such as C-arms) that can cause collisions. In this case, it is necessary to adjust the haptic feedback in a way that does not bother the clinicians and at the same time enables haptic feedback or guides a user away from invisible dangers.