Tactile Map Automated Creation System to Enhance the Mobility of Blind Persons - Its Design Concept and Evaluation through Experiment

The authors have developed a tactile map creation system (TMACS). It is intended to assist blind persons’ independent mobility. For this purpose, the system was designed to produce tactile maps, to be manipulated by the blind person and to support producing tactile maps of arbitrary locations of Japan. Through group interviews with blind persons, the authors collected information on what kind of strategies are useful for independ walk and what kind of objects can function as landmarks. TMACS is developed to make good use of these information. From the walking experiment, some assumptions which were made by the authors were confirmed. On the other hand, some unexpected or contradicted results were observed on the usefulness of landmarks and the cause of losing right routes. Keyword: Blind person, Visually Impaired, Tactile Map, Independent Mobility, Orientation and Mobility