Seeing in the Dark
by David Pescovitz
Hesham
Kamel demonstrates the complete portability of IC2D. (Click
for larger image.)
David Pescovitz photo
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Hesham
Kamel is drawing a scene of a lighthouse on his laptop computer
that he will never see. That's because Kamel is blind.
But thanks to the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences PhD
student's Integrated Communication 2 Draw (IC2D) software prototype,
Kamel can create diagrams, pictures, even animations using just
a keyboard and computer screen reader for the blind.
IC2D was born four years ago when Kamel became frustrated at his
inability to complete a paper on time because the sighted person
who was supposed to draw the accompanying illustrations was unavailable.
Kamel discussed his unique problem with his adviser, computer science
professor James Landay of Berkeley's Group for User Interface Research,
part of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest
of Society (CITRIS).
"Right away, Professor Landay suggested that my PhD research should
be to figure out a way to draw by myself," says Kamel, 40, who was
blinded seventeen years ago in a surgical accident.
When he gives presentations on IC2D, Kamel uses a simple exercise
to illustrate the difficulty of drawing, or even using a mouse,
when you can't see see. He stands in the center of the room and
asks audience members to point at his hand. Then he instructs them
to close their eyes, move their fingers to another point in the
room, and then back to his hand. The task is nearly impossible.
This
image was created by Victoria Hahn and Hesham Kamel using
IC2D. When animated, the beam of light from the lighthouse
flickers and the waves roll. (Click for larger
image.)
Photo courtesy Hesham Kamel
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Kamel
tackled this navigational problem by designing a new interface for
human-computer interaction. IC2D divides the computer screen into
a 3-by-3 grid numbered like a telephone keypad. As the user moves
a cursor from square to square, a computer voice announces the location
point back to the user. Each of the nine squares can further be
divided resulting in a grid of 727 total cells. All commands —
including the selection of shapes to position in each square and
color choices — are also selected using the telephone keypad-like
interface and announced by the voice synthesizer.
"To help blind users see what I draw, I developed a technique to
give the components of the picture a meaningful label," Kamel adds.
For example, he might provide a verbal label for the rear passenger
wheel in an image of an automobile. The wheel can be further described
as consisting of a black rubber tread and silver hubcap.
During the four years he's been developing IC2D, Kamel has enlisted
the aid of 22 volunteers who were sighted, blind, visually-impaired,
or blindfolded.
"It takes a matter
of minutes to pick up on the system, on how it works and how to
use the different levels and access the different shapes and colors,"
blind user Victoria Hahn has said. "Each time you move your cursor,
the program tells you what colors you have chosen. This makes it
accessible to visually impaired or color blind or totally blind
people."
Once he completes his nearly-finished dissertation, Kamel hopes
to refine IC2D into a commercial product. He already has new features
in mind, including the ability to import traditional images into
the software for verbal description to blind users so they can imagine
pre-existing images.
"There are many people out there who can't understand that blind
people have imaginations, just as sighted people do," Kamel says.
"For me, it's all about independence. More than anything though,
I want to change the way people think when they develop technology
for the visually impaired."
Hesham Kamel's
home page
Integrated Communication
2 Draw
Group for User Interface Research
CITRIS
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Updated 8/28/02.
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