The cost of knowing: How obstacle alerts reduce walking speeds of augmented white cane users

Milo Marsfeldt Skovfoged, Alexander Schiller Rasmussen*, David Kirsh, Hendrik Knoche

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalConference article in JournalResearchpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)
182 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

To ensure safe passage blind travellers utilize mobility aids such as the white cane to preview the space their body will move through. Augmented white canes (AWC) have increased this preview range to reduce collisions, but consequently incurred lower walking speeds. The literature has blamed the slowdown on the AWC provided alerts that are additional to white cane feedback, unnecessary, too complex, and the anticipatory slowdown of their users. Two within-subject studies with six visually impaired and ten blindfolded people compared the white cane to two different AWC preview types (See Figure 1) combined with two ranges to investigate the causes of the slowdowns. The cognitive cost from processing AWC additional and unnecessary alerts and their complexity slowed users down and should be kept to a minimum as they neither helped reduce collisions nor physically detecting obstacles with the cane.
Original languageEnglish
Article number192
JournalProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Volume6
Issue numberMHCI
Number of pages16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Sept 2022

Keywords

  • White cane
  • visually impaired
  • blind
  • mobility aid
  • electronic mobility aid
  • electronic travel aid
  • preview range
  • collisions
  • walking speed
  • alerts
  • haptic interface

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The cost of knowing: How obstacle alerts reduce walking speeds of augmented white cane users'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this