Sound presentation method for touch panel regarding the use of visually impaired people

Due to simple and instinctive controls, a touch panel becomes a key user interface for various multimedia applications, such as PCs and smart-phones; however, it is not still open interface for visually impaired people. Visually impaired people who live independently are good at sound localization that helps understanding of their surrounding environment. We introduce sound localization into 2D touch panel interactive contents design. This paper proposes seven touch panel-based sound presentation methods that enable to recognize two-dimensional space by using algorismic sound change and stereo effects. To evaluate the proposed methods, we also develop a concentration game as an example of the contents design, and congenital/acquired blinds play the game. The required time to clear the game and cards flip/touch times are recorded and analyzed. The result shows that the best method of our proposed methods is a combination of stereo effects in horizontal axis and the musical scale of do, re, mi, fa in vertical axis.