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A Training Smartphone Application for the Simulation of Outdoor Blind Pedestrian Navigation: Usability, UX Evaluation, Sentiment Analysis

Training blind and visually impaired individuals is an important but often neglected aspect of Assistive Technology solutions (ATs) that can benefit from systems utilizing multiple sensors and hardware devices. Training serves a dual purpose as it not only enables the target group to effectively uti...

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Autores principales: Theodorou, Paraskevi, Tsiligkos, Kleomenis, Meliones, Apostolos, Filios, Costas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9823522/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36616964
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23010367
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author Theodorou, Paraskevi
Tsiligkos, Kleomenis
Meliones, Apostolos
Filios, Costas
author_facet Theodorou, Paraskevi
Tsiligkos, Kleomenis
Meliones, Apostolos
Filios, Costas
author_sort Theodorou, Paraskevi
collection PubMed
description Training blind and visually impaired individuals is an important but often neglected aspect of Assistive Technology solutions (ATs) that can benefit from systems utilizing multiple sensors and hardware devices. Training serves a dual purpose as it not only enables the target group to effectively utilize the ATs but, also, helps in improving their low acceptance rate. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and validation of a smartphone-based training application. It is a form of immersive system that enables users to learn the features of an outdoor blind pedestrian navigation application and, simultaneously, to help them develop long-term Orientation and Mobility (O&M) skills. The system consists of an Android application leveraging, as data sources, an external high-accuracy GPS sensor for real-time pedestrian mobility tracking, a second custom-made device attached to traffic lights for identifying their status, and an ultra-sonic sensor for detecting near-field obstacles on the navigation path of the users. The training version running as an Android application employs route simulation with audio and haptic feedback, is functionally equivalent to the main application, and was used in the context of specially designed user-centered training sessions. A Usability and User Experience (UX) evaluation revealed the positive attitude of the users towards the training version as well as their satisfaction with the skills acquired during their training sessions (SUS = 69.1, UEQ+ = 1.53). Further confirming the positive attitude was the conduct of a Recursive Neural Network (RNN)-based sentiment analysis on user responses with a score of 3 on a scale from 0 to 4. Finally, we conclude with the lessons learned and the proposal of general design guidelines concerning the observed lack of accessibility and non-universal interfaces.
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spelling pubmed-98235222023-01-08 A Training Smartphone Application for the Simulation of Outdoor Blind Pedestrian Navigation: Usability, UX Evaluation, Sentiment Analysis Theodorou, Paraskevi Tsiligkos, Kleomenis Meliones, Apostolos Filios, Costas Sensors (Basel) Article Training blind and visually impaired individuals is an important but often neglected aspect of Assistive Technology solutions (ATs) that can benefit from systems utilizing multiple sensors and hardware devices. Training serves a dual purpose as it not only enables the target group to effectively utilize the ATs but, also, helps in improving their low acceptance rate. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and validation of a smartphone-based training application. It is a form of immersive system that enables users to learn the features of an outdoor blind pedestrian navigation application and, simultaneously, to help them develop long-term Orientation and Mobility (O&M) skills. The system consists of an Android application leveraging, as data sources, an external high-accuracy GPS sensor for real-time pedestrian mobility tracking, a second custom-made device attached to traffic lights for identifying their status, and an ultra-sonic sensor for detecting near-field obstacles on the navigation path of the users. The training version running as an Android application employs route simulation with audio and haptic feedback, is functionally equivalent to the main application, and was used in the context of specially designed user-centered training sessions. A Usability and User Experience (UX) evaluation revealed the positive attitude of the users towards the training version as well as their satisfaction with the skills acquired during their training sessions (SUS = 69.1, UEQ+ = 1.53). Further confirming the positive attitude was the conduct of a Recursive Neural Network (RNN)-based sentiment analysis on user responses with a score of 3 on a scale from 0 to 4. Finally, we conclude with the lessons learned and the proposal of general design guidelines concerning the observed lack of accessibility and non-universal interfaces. MDPI 2022-12-29 /pmc/articles/PMC9823522/ /pubmed/36616964 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23010367 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Theodorou, Paraskevi
Tsiligkos, Kleomenis
Meliones, Apostolos
Filios, Costas
A Training Smartphone Application for the Simulation of Outdoor Blind Pedestrian Navigation: Usability, UX Evaluation, Sentiment Analysis
title A Training Smartphone Application for the Simulation of Outdoor Blind Pedestrian Navigation: Usability, UX Evaluation, Sentiment Analysis
title_full A Training Smartphone Application for the Simulation of Outdoor Blind Pedestrian Navigation: Usability, UX Evaluation, Sentiment Analysis
title_fullStr A Training Smartphone Application for the Simulation of Outdoor Blind Pedestrian Navigation: Usability, UX Evaluation, Sentiment Analysis
title_full_unstemmed A Training Smartphone Application for the Simulation of Outdoor Blind Pedestrian Navigation: Usability, UX Evaluation, Sentiment Analysis
title_short A Training Smartphone Application for the Simulation of Outdoor Blind Pedestrian Navigation: Usability, UX Evaluation, Sentiment Analysis
title_sort training smartphone application for the simulation of outdoor blind pedestrian navigation: usability, ux evaluation, sentiment analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9823522/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36616964
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23010367
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