Design of Augmented Tactile Books for Blind Children

Abstract

We present the design of the first prototypes of augmented tactile books. These books not only play sounds but also engage the children by proposing original digital models of interaction based on recent research in the domain of sensorimotor psychology. The prototype books were designed using rich tactile material to be touched on the pages as well as miniaturized electronic components -- embedded in the pages themselves -- to detect several different gestures on the page such as the action of simulating walking with two fingers. Here we describe and then informally test three prototypes. After receiving encouraging feedback, we continued this project by designing a small series of 12 prototypes to perform a formal evaluation with two types of users: professionals and blind children.