Note: room 4.28 of the LMUY building can be challenging to find. Here are some directions.

Mark magee presents his Media Technology MSc graduation thesis work, in 20-25 minutes and followed by 10-15 minutes public discussion. Everyone is invited to attend!

    

Language

English

Access

Public for everyone

Duration

One hour total

Comparing Performance of Monohaptic and Bihaptic Vibrational Feedback Spatial Devices in a Blindfolded Pathfinding Maze Study — Mark Magee

Assistive depth perception devices for blind people, which help with obstacle detection and avoidance, are currently on the market, but many suffer from issues such as being slower to use, less reliable, and not as widespread as white canes. However, white canes have trouble detecting above ground obstacles such as tree branches and have limited range of obstacle detection (~1m). This study proposes a solution to improve spatial perception and obstacle avoidance by use of two depth sensing haptic feedback devices in tandem (bihaptic conditions / BC) and compare its performance in maze navigation to the use of one such device (monohaptic conditions / MC). Forty-two adult sighted participants took part in a study to test performance of BC vs MC in a blindfolded maze navigation study. Participants' performance was scored on the Time to Complete (TTC) the maze and the Number of Collisions (NOC) made with eight cardboard obstacles. BC was found to have significantly less NOC than MC (p=0.03). MC had lower TTC than BC but was not significant (p=0.198). In conclusion BC was better than MC for detection and avoidance of obstacles in a blindfolded maze without significantly affecting TTC.

Thesis advisors: Maarten Lamers and Paul Jansen Klomp

Media Technology MSc graduation presentations follow a classic conference format. Each student presents their work in 20 minutes. With the primary advisor acting as a conference session chair, the presentation is followed by a moderated public discussion.

Although everyone can ask questions in the discussion, the right to ask the first questions is for the two invited critics. These were personally invited by the graduate to read their thesis before the presentation, and to formulate one or two questions for the discussion. Ambitious students have been known to invite high-profile academic critics.