[accessibleimage] Optimal halftoning for tactile imaging microcapsule, Art, belly dance



Optimal halftoning for tactile imaging
Nayak, A. Barner, K.E.
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA;
This paper appears in: Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, IEEE Transactions on [see also IEEE Trans. on Rehabilitation Engineering] 
Publication Date: June 2004
Volume: 12, Issue: 2
On page(s): 216- 227
ISSN: 1534-4320
INSPEC Accession Number: 8155231
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/TNSRE.2003.819885
Posted online: 2004-06-14 12:52:30.0


Abstract
Reading of text and understanding images by touch is an important alternative and additional source of information when sight is absent or lost. Tactile graphics and models such as edge maps, binary output, etc., are the solution for simple access to images for blind persons. This paper introduces an approach to model the human tactile system based on the responses produced by stimuli on microcapsule paper. This system is utilized for the purpose of generating optimum halftone patterns on microcapsule paper that can be utilized for the effective generation of tactile graphics. 

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1304863&isnumber=28982

blog excerpt
Turkey boasts a unique artist, a man who paints with lively colors, great imagination and a strong depth of feeling. But, you are already saying to yourself that this is as it should be. The difference between this painter’s work and other’s work is that he has never seen light in his life, doesn’t know one color from another and he has certainly never seen any of the objects that he has painted. (Watch Discovery Channel Video Below) 

http://schlicken.blogsome.com/2008/04/15/esref-armagan-the-artist-with-no-eyes/

article video

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1504332490

Blind Artist with Diabetes
Apr 14, 2008
Blinded by diabetes, artist Suzanne Gardner shares her incredible paintings and story. 

article excerpt
Legally blind choreographer uses her unique vision to share Middle Eastern dance 
http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/fun/x170775416
She decided to try it herself. Cusick studied dancers at supper clubs, took lessons and became a versatile belly dancer in her own right, performing in Turkey, Brazil and New York. She re-imagined herself in her stage name: Johara.
But dancing was not enough. Cusick wanted to infuse belly dance with the vocabulary of her other dancing loves — African, ballroom, Latin, jazz and hip-hop — to make it more accessible to a general audience. In short, she wanted to choreograph.
“I know it sounds grandiose, but I want to bring belly dancing to the masses,” she said.
With dancing, Cusick’s blindness is something of an asset (she can’t, after all, be disarmed by the sight of an audience). But choreography requires vision. She starts by imagining a dance in broad strokes, the way she sees — in patches of color, clustered formations and the outlines of dancers’ bodies. When teaching the particular maneuvers of a dance in rehearsal, she swoops close to the dancers to see what she can. From these bits, she can infer how the dance looks as a whole
See her show “EMERGENCE: An Evening of Contemporary Middle Eastern Belly Dance and Fusion” will be held Sunday, April 27, 7-9 p.m., at The Julie Ince Thompson Theater in Central Square, Cambridge. 

article

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/darpa-wants-sol.html

DARPA Wants Soldiers to Touch, From 300 Feet Away

AMCategories: DarpaWatch, Gadgets and Gear
Right now, soldiers on the go have to shout to each other, or flash hand signals, to communicate. Pentagon researchers have an idea for a different way to connect: tapping one another on the shoulder, from up to 300 feet away.
Anybody who's grabbed a buzzing cell phone knows a little something about haptics -- the science of communicating through the sense of touch. The brains at DARPA figure those vibrations might be a good way for troops to share info, across noisy urban battlefields.

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