Monitor, a Vibrotactile Aid for Environmental Perception: A Field Evaluation by Four People with Severe Hearing and Vision Impairment

الملخص EN

Monitor is a portable vibrotactile aid to improve the ability of people with severe hearing impairment or deafblindness to detect, identify, and recognize the direction of sound-producing events.

It transforms and adapts sounds to the frequency sensitivity range of the skin.

The aid was evaluated in the field.

Four females (44–54 years) with Usher Syndrome I (three with tunnel vision and one with only light perception) tested the aid at home and in traffic in three different field studies: without Monitor, with Monitor with an omnidirectional microphone, and with Monitor with a directional microphone.

The tests were video-documented, and the two field studies with Monitor were initiated after five weeks of training.

The detection scores with omnidirectional and directional microphones were 100% for three participants and above 57% for one, both in their home and traffic environments.

In the home environment the identification scores with the omnidirectional microphone were 70%–97% and 58%–95% with the directional microphone.

The corresponding values in traffic were 29%–100% and 65%–100%, respectively.

Their direction perception was improved to some extent by both microphones.

Monitor improved the ability of people with deafblindness to detect, identify, and recognize the direction of events producing sounds.