Keeping the end user in mind

[Note added July 8: If you’re having trouble getting the video to run on this page, try it at the full story on the Third Eye project, here. We’re sorry for the inconvenience–]

Lesson number one for those who design high-tech devices: Make sure they actually fit the needs of the people who will be using them.

Penn State video producer Curtis Parker recently visited Jack Carroll, Distinguished Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, and Penn State IT consultant Michelle McManus, who is visually impaired, to talk about designing for end users with a disability.

Carroll is part of a research team that is designing a “smart glove” that can help visually impaired people do their grocery shopping. It recognizes items on the store shelves and guides the shopper to pick up items he or she wants to buy. The glove is part of a massive, multi-institutional project called “Visual Cortex on Silicon.”

Read the full story about this work in the April issue of Research/Penn State (available around campus) or online here.

 

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