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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/M44866/01
Title: MULTIVIS: A MULTIMODAL VISUALISATION SYSTEM FOR BLIND STUDENTS USING VIRTUAL REALITY
Principal Investigator: Brewster, Professor SA
Other Investigators:
Dimigen, Dr G Burton, Professor AM Burton, Professor A
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Virtual Presence Ltd
Department: School of Computing Science
Organisation: University of Glasgow
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 October 1999 Ends: 28 February 2003 Value (£): 360,269
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Computer Graphics & Visual.
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Creative Industries Information Technologies
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
One of the main problems caused by blindness is access to information. Visualisation is an increasingly important method for understanding complex information using tables, graphs and 3D plots. Being able to perceive and understand complex information is particularly important for students at school and university. Computer-based visualisations depend heavily on high-resolution graphics and for blind students the problems of using such techniques are great. There are currently only limited methods for presenting information non-visually (synthetic speech and Braille) and these do not provide equivalent ease of use to their graphical counterparts, thus depriving blind people further. We will investigate and solve these problems by using technologies developed for Virtual Reality (VR) that allow users to feel and hear their data.The innovative aspect of this proposal is to use force-feedback and sound technologies to present complex information in ways that blind students can use, so making the most of the senses that they have. We will systematically investigate the best way to use these new VR techniques and, to ensure effectiveness, will conduct detailed experimental evaluations of systems developed. We will also establish design guidelines and demonstrator applications to show visualisation system designers how these technologies can be used.
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Organisation Website: http://www.gla.ac.uk