• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• 제1권2호
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• pp.69-83
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• 2013

This paper aims to determine the preference and use of electronic information and resources by blind/visually impaired users in the leading National Capital Region (NCR) libraries of India. Survey methodology has been used as the basic research tool for data collection with the help of questionnaires. The 125 in total users surveyed in all the five libraries were selected randomly on the basis of willingness of the users with experience of working in digital environments to participate in the survey. The survey results were tabulated and analyzed with descriptive statistics methods using Excel software and 'Stata version 11'. The findings reveal that ICT have a positive impact in the lives of people with disabilities as it helps them to work independently and increases the level of confidence among them. The Internet is the most preferred medium of access to information among the majority of blind/visually impaired users. The 'Complexity of content available on the net' is found as the major challenge faced during Internet use by blind users of NCR libraries. 'Audio books on CDs/DVDs and DAISY books' are the most preferred electronic resources among the majority of blind/visually impaired users. This study will help the library professionals and organizations/institutions serving people with disabilities to develop effective library services for blind/visually impaired users in the digital environment on the basis of findings on information usage behavior in the study.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• 제21권6호
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• pp.258-268
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• 2021

Online learning systems are becoming an effective educational medium for many universities. The accessibility of online learning system in universities means that every student, including the visually impaired, is able use all the site's services. This research focuses on investigating the accessibility of online learning systems for visually impaired users. The paper purpose is to understand the perception of visually impaired undergraduate students towards Blackboard's accessibility and to make recommendations for a new Blackboard design with accessible features that support their needs. Impact of a new Blackboard design with accessible features on visually impaired students, using Taif University students as a case study is evaluated in this paper, as it is similar to most learning systems used by Saudi universities. A study on Taif University's utilization of Blackboard was conducted using mixed method approaches (an automatic tool and a user study). In the first phase, Taif's use of Blackboard was evaluated by the web accessibility tool called AChecker. In the second phase, we conducted a user study to verify previously discovered accessibility challenges to fully assess them according to the accessibility and usability guidelines. In this study, the accessibility of Taif University's Blackboard was evaluated by thirteen visually impaired undergraduate students. The results of the study show that Blackboard has accessibility issues, which are confusing navigation, incompatibility with assistive technologies, untitled pages or parts, unclear identification for visual elements, and inaccessible PDF files. This paper also introduces a set of recommendations that aim to improve the accessibility of Blackboard and other educational websites developed for this population. It also highlights the serious need for universities to enhance web accessibility for online learning systems for students with disabilities.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• 제12권5호
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• pp.2287-2312
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• 2018

Extracting key visual information from images containing natural scene is a challenging task and an important step for the visually impaired to recognize information based on tactile graphics. In this study, a novel method is proposed for extracting salient regions based on global contrast enhancement and saliency cuts in order to improve the process of recognizing images for the visually impaired. To accomplish this, an image enhancement technique is applied to natural scene images, and a saliency map is acquired to measure the color contrast of homogeneous regions against other areas of the image. The saliency maps also help automatic salient region extraction, referred to as saliency cuts, and assist in obtaining a binary mask of high quality. Finally, outer boundaries and inner edges are detected in images with natural scene to identify edges that are visually significant. Experimental results indicate that the method we propose in this paper extracts salient objects effectively and achieves remarkable performance compared to conventional methods. Our method offers benefits in extracting salient objects and generating simple but important edges from images containing natural scene and for providing information to the visually impaired.

• 한국디자인학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국디자인학회 2002년도 가을학술발표대회 디자인학 연구
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• pp.174-175
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• 2002

• 복식
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• 제66권6호
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• pp.95-109
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• 2016

The process of making fashion accessories brings many benefits to visually impaired people. It helps the development of their tactile sensation, improves their aesthetic attitude, creativity, and imagination, and brings energy to their life. The current accessory making education in Korea is targeted to people with normal vision, and does not reflect the specific needs of the visually impaired. This causes a lot of trouble in educating the visually impaired. Therefore, this study aims to increase the efficiency of accessory making education by selecting curriculum and material that are appropriate and systematic for the visually impaired. In order to understand visual impairment, literature review was conducted to examine the definition and classifications of the impairment. Research was also done regarding material types and production method of fashion accessory. The study also designed an education program, including teaching guidelines, by referring to literature related to fashion accessory design, teaching guideline. The study conducted 12 experiments based on the results from April to June 2014. After revising and supplementing the teaching method, 2nd set of experiments were conducted from July to September 2014. Each class lasted for one and a half hour every week, and the class was composed of 6 students, 1 instructor and 1 volunteer. After each class, interviews were done to collect student opinions about the curriculum and material. Total experiment results and interview were reflected in constructing the final education program. The result of the experiments and interviews showed that selecting the accessory materials for class must be selected carefully. The visually-impaired students were very sensitive to the size, texture, shape, hole size of beads and length of material. After the experiments, all the students were able to distinguish the size and shape of the beads well, and finished the accessories using the given materials. The study verified that there is a need for another approach when educating the visually impaired about fashion accessory design. Many factors need to be considered from selecting materials to class contents. This study will contribute as a reference to fashion accessory making education as well as other design education for the visually impaired.

• 한국콘텐츠학회논문지
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• 제20권10호
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• pp.688-701
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• 2020

본 연구는 시각장애인 대상의 인공지능 관련 연구 동향을 살펴보기 위해 1993년부터 2020년 8월까지 국내·외 논문 총 68편을 선정하여 연도별 논문 게재 수, 연구방법, 연구주제, 키워드 분석 현황, 연구유형, 구현방법별 비교·분석하였다. 연구결과, 연구기간 내 논문 편수는 꾸준히 증가하는 것처럼 보였으나 국내 연구의 경우에는 2016년도 이후에 활발해진 것을 알 수 있었다. 연구방법으로는 국내·외 연구 모두 개발연구가 89.7%를 차지했고, 키워드는 국내 연구에서는 Visually impaired, Deep learning, Assistive device 순이였으며 국외 연구에서는 Visually impaired, Deep learning, Artificial intelligence 순으로 단어 빈도순에서 차이를 보였다. 연구유형은 국내·외 모두 설계, 개발, 구현이 대부분을 차지했으며 구현방법으로는 국내 연구의 구현방법으로는 System 13.2%, Solution 7.4%, App. 4.4% 순이였으며 국외 연구의 구현방법으로는 System 32.4%, App.13.2%, Device 7.4%로 다소 차이를 보였다. 구현방법의 적용 기술로는 국내 연구는 YOLO 2.7%, TTS 2.1%, Tensorflow 2.1% 순이였으며 국외 연구에서는 CNN 8.0%, TTS 5.3%, MS-COCO 4.3% 순으로 사용횟수가 높았다. 본 연구는 시각장애인 대상의 인공지능 관련 연구 동향을 비교·분석하여 국내·외 연구의 현주소를 바로 알고 앞으로 시각장애인을 위한 인공지능 연구의 방향을 제시하고자 하였다.

• 한국실내디자인학회논문집
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• 제28호
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• pp.100-108
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to develop recommendation of sign system and color codes in making the public interior environment more accessible for the visually impaired persons. The appropriate guidelines in designing the sign system and the color codes in the public interior environment can increase the accessibility, the mobility and the safety for the visually impaired persons including the increasing elderly. By selecting the effective sign system much more desirable results can be brought: Improvement of accessibility, mobility, increase of safety, work efficiency and the psychological stability. Sign system and the color is more important for the weak-sighted people than the normal-sighted in way finding and the orientation strategies. 53 visually impaired persons participated for this study, the answers of the questionaires by the weak-sighted persons are focused on in this research. The data, the needs of users is analysed on the basis of users-oriented. The result of this study can be considered as a basic direction of sign system design and color codes in our codes in our public environment for all people especially visually impaired persons.

• 인터넷정보학회논문지
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• 제9권5호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2008

본 논문에서는 시각 장애인을 위한 효율적인 휴대용 점자 시스템을 제안하였으며, 그 설계 및 구현을 설명한다. 시각 장애인이 정보화 기기를 효과적으로 사용하기 위해서는 전용 정보화 기기의 구축, 장애를 고려한 접근성 보장, 교육 지원 등 세 가지 조건이 만족되어야 한다. 본 논문에서는 위의 세 가지 조건을 요구사항으로 정의하고, 이 조건들을 만족하도록 시각장애인을 위한 점자 시스템을 설계하였다. 제안된 시스템에서는 PC에 저장되어 있는 문서나 웹 페이지를 점자와 한글간의 변환 규칙에 따라서 구현한 알고리즘을 통해 데이터를 변환하고, 변환된 데이터를 휴대용 점자 디바이스에게 전송한다. 그리고 휴대용 점자 디바이스는 전자석의 원리를 이용하여 점자를 표현한다.

• 한국콘텐츠학회논문지
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.24-30
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• 2015

도시의 복잡성이 증가할수록 장애인의 외출은 많은 제약을 받는다. 특히 시각장애인들은 사물뿐만 아니라 사물 주위의 환경을 인지할 수 없어 야외 활동을 하는데 있어 수많은 환경적 어려움을 겪는다. 하지만 현재 국내의 야외 환경은 시각장애인을 포함한 장애인들의 활동을 보조하는 정책적, 수단적 시설이 많이 부족한 것이 현실이다. 이에 본 논문에서는 시각장애인의 야외 활동에 도움을 줄 수 있는 길안내 시스템을 제안한다. 제안한 시스템은 시험을 위해 K대학교 J캠퍼스에 적용하였다. 제안한 시스템은 시각장애인들의 야외활동의 범위를 넓히고, 다양한 사회 활동이 가능하도록 도움을 줄 수 있다.

• 디지털산업정보학회논문지
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.119-127
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• 2023

Recently, deep learning has been used in the development of various institutional devices and services to help the visually impaired people in their daily lives. This is because not only are there few products and facility guides written in braille, but less than 10% of the visually impaired can use braille. In this paper, we propose a system that recognizes beverage cans in real time and outputs the beverage can name with sound for the convenience of the visually impaired. Five commercially available beverage cans were selected, and a CNN model and a YOLO model were designed to recognize the beverage cans. After augmenting the image data, model training was performed. The accuracy of the proposed CNN model and YOLO model is 91.2% and 90.8%, respectively. For practical verification, a system was built by attaching a camera and speaker to a Raspberry Pi. In the system, the YOLO model was applied. It was confirmed that beverage cans were recognized and output as sound in real time in various environments.