Android App to Help Blind People Study Math

Engineers at Vanderbilt University have developed an Android application for touchscreen tablets that turns visual objects into tactile ones.

Jenna Gorlewicz, a graduate student in Vanderbilt’s Medical and Electromechanical Design Laboratory (MED Lab), developed the app with Robert Webster, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and director of the lab. Their project is supported by The National Science Foundation. 

In an article for Vanderbilt University News, Gorlewicz said:

When I began reading articles about haptic technology being incorporated into these new touchscreen devices, I realized that the people who really need haptics are people with impaired vision because they heavily rely on their sense of touch to ‘see’ the world around them.

I love math and I love teaching, so I immediately thought of using them for math education, because it has such a strong visual component.

Watch a video report from Vanderbilt.

Source: Vanderbilt University News, Medgadget