An End-to-End Pipeline to Generate Augmented Tactile Maps from Floor Plans

This paper presents an end-to-end pipeline for transforming indoor floor plans into accessible tactile maps enriched with audio annotations. The approach integrates SIM (Semantic Interior Mapology), which allows authors to trace floor plans and assign semantic labels to relevant spatial features (e.g., rooms, corridors, restrooms, and stairs), with CamIO, a camera-based web application that delivers spoken feedback when users point to interactive regions (hotspots) on a tactile graphic. A pilot study with two blind participants and a follow-up study with five additional participants showed that users could successfully complete room-finding and route-tracing tasks and appreciated the system's support for spatial understanding. Usability evaluation yielded a mean SUS score of 77, indicating good usability, while NASA-TLX results showed a relatively low perceived workload, supporting the effectiveness of the proposed solution. Results also highlighted areas for improvement, including lower latency and clearer interaction around doors and small hotspots.