The interactive tactile display system was originally devised to make drawing enjoyable for blind persons. Its distinctive feature is that it enables them not only to draw but to erase raised lines just by moving the stylus on the tactile display surface in the same way as sighted people use the pencil and eraser on a sheet of paper. The user can also draw “blinking” lines and blocks so as to attract the receiver’s attention to that blinking point without taking receiver’s hands. In addition, auditory information, including speech, is given according to the user’s actions. These features of real-time feedback of tactile and auditory information allow it to be utilized as an interactive multimodal display system other than merely a drawing system. We have confirmed its potential by developing Kanji (Chinese characters) learning system and tactile games. Since 2003, we have been using this system in the class at a school for the blind and have proved its practicability. In the presentation we describe how the lessons proceeded and summarize its effect of education.
Prior knowledge of topic assumed: Low
Contains advanced technical content: No
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