Developing an assistive technology for individuals with visual impairment: smart glove concept

Abstract

For people with visual impairments, daily activities such as mobility, communication, shopping or clothing may refer to a challenge or a process that cannot be managed independently. The whole process of clothing, which covers all phases from shopping to using and combining the purchased garments may cause many difficulties for those with moderate and complete blindness. The main difficulties encountered in this process are determined as recognizing the color, pattern, design details, price, instructions for use of the garment without any help, and not being able to match the clothes independently in daily life. As a solution, technological innovations have provided positive contributions in terms of assistive technologies (often abbreviated as AT). In this study, based on the user-centered design approach, and considering the possible innovations that can be integrated in the ATs, a smart glove concept was created. Under the Smart Glove Concept, a bidirectional user scenario was constructed and a smart glove was conceptually developed for people with visual impairments.