of a deaf-blind student using the TMAP system. (Please note that this is a large download.)

of Josh Miele's, of Smith Kettlewell, talk at Google about the TMAP project.

 

Touch Graphics, Inc. is now carrying out research on a system for creating on-the-fly talking tactile neighborhood maps for use in Orientation and Mobility training. A user will visit the TMAP website, hosted by Smith Kettelwell Eye Research Institute, and enter any address or street intersection in the United States. They will be sent the map as a computer file that can be output to a Braille embosser. Once the map has been embossed, they will place it on a Talking Tactile Tablet (TTT), and then explore the map by touching it. When they press down on any street shown on the map, they will hear the name of the street and other information, such as the addresses of building on a particular block, direction of traffic, and so on. Important landmarks, like parks, rivers and public buildings, will also be shown.

This work is being carried out in collaboration with the Smith Kettelwell, creators of the TMAP site, and the Helen Keller National Center in Sands Point, New York. Preliminary findings will be shared at the CSUN conference in Los Angeles in March, 2006. The work has been funded by a Phase 1 SBIR grant from the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research, United States Department of Education.