Assistive Technologies:
How NIST Helps People with Disabilities

For more than 100 years, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed and promoted measurement, standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate trade, and improve the quality of life. A variety of NIST activities and technologies benefit the disabled, as described in the examples below. NIST is a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Technologies for the Blind and Visually Impaired

NIST has developed two prototype technologies to help the blind read electronic text and “feel” electronic images. The patented technologies are available for licensing by the private sector for commercialization.

The NIST Braille reader transforms electronic text into the patterns of raised dots used by the blind to read. The device can be used for reviewing e-mail, browsing the World Wide Web, and other text-based applications. The NIST reader uses software to translate text into Braille, which is displayed at a user-selected speed on a rotating wheel. NIST estimates that the reader could be manufactured for about $1,000, much less than commercial devices carrying price tags as high as $15,000. Much of the cost savings result from the use of only three actuators—the mechanical devices that form Braille letters—compared to the hundreds in commercial readers.

The NIST tactile graphic display enables the blind to use their fingers to feel electronic images, such as scanned illustrations and map outlines. The National Federation of the Blind has field tested the device, which uses software to create a simplified line drawing of an electronic image and present that drawing in a tactile display. About 3,600 small pins in a rectangular array are automatically raised in the appropriate pattern under computer control, and locked into place for reading. The pins then can be withdrawn and reset in a new pattern, allowing the tactile reading to continue through a variety of images. The device, inspired by a “bed of nails” toy found in a novelty store, is projected to cost an estimated $2,000 or less, about 1/20th the cost of similar commercial devices.

For more information, visit www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/visual_display.htm. An updated project Web page is in preparation.

Contact: John Roberts, (301) 975-5683, john.roberts@nist.gov.

Hearing Aids Metrology

NIST supports the design and use of better hearing aids by developing test and measurement methods and participating in voluntary standards activities that benefit manufacturers, distributors, and users of hearing aids. This work is performed in a dedicated echo-free chamber with computer-controlled test systems. A long-standing NIST program sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the largest U.S. consumer of hearing aids, has provided data on hearing aid performance to audiologists working in active-duty military hospitals, as well as VA and private-sector clinicians, researchers, and consultants.

NIST is currently collaborating with the VA to establish new test and signal processing methods to accommodate ever-more-sophisticated hearing aids. Recent technological advances have led to the development of much smaller microphones, requiring the development and analysis of smaller microphone coupler techniques and associated metrology infrastructure. In addition, more sophisticated hearing aids with signal and microphone array processing demand the development of more complex testing methods. A key issue is the measurement of directional properties to help design hearing aids that enable users to better understand speech in the presence of interfering sounds and reverberation.

Contact: Victor Nedzelnitsky, (301) 975-6638, victor.nedzelnitsky@nist.gov.

Accessibility and Usability of Voting Technology

Enacted by Congress in October 2002, the Help America Vote Act gives NIST a key role in helping realize nationwide improvements in voting systems by January 2006.

NIST’s initial activities include preparing a voting system usability and accessibility report that looks at the impact of human factors on the effectiveness of election-related technologies. NIST computer scientists are reviewing existing voting system standards in light of a growing body of research and best practices in the areas of usability engineering and testing, human-computer inter-action, and human factors. Also, an expert panel on usability and accessibility was convened at the recent NIST Building Trust and Confidence in Voting Systems Symposium held in December 2003.

For more information, visit http://vote.nist.gov.

Contact: Allan Eustis, (301) 975-5099, allan.eustis@nist.gov.

Biomedical Materials and Devices

NIST assists the biomedical device industry through the development of standards, measurement and calibration methods, and other products and services. Assistive technology projects include research on manufacturing and processing of prosthetic devices. NIST has a reputation as a neutral, objective source of information in technical matters and a long history of working with the technical and industrial communities to promote acceptance and use of new standards, methods, and technologies. Existing activities, as well as suggested priority tasks for the future, were summarized in a recent workshop.

For more information, visit www.nist.gov/public_affairs/Biomedical_Materials.pdf.

Contact: Newell Washburn, (301) 975-4348, newell.washburn@nist.gov.

Smart Space Technologies

The disabled could benefit from “smart work spaces” of the future, which will feature built-in computers, information appliances, and multi-modal sensors such as voice recognition systems. Smart spaces will enable people to perform tasks efficiently by offering unprecedented levels of access to information and computer assistance. These spaces will incorporate advances in perceptual interfaces, information appliances that move freely between work spaces offering unprecedented mobility and networking, and wireless computers carried and worn by workers. The NIST Smart Space project involves establishing a testbed and developing measurement, standards, and means of interoperability for integrating numerous computing devices. The testbed also will be used for prototype implementation of the information technology accessibility architecture developed by the International Committee for Information Technology Standards.

For more information, visit www.nist.gov/smartspace/.

Contact: Vincent Stanford, (301) 975-5399, vincent.stanford@nist.gov.

Automatic Meeting Transcription

Hearing impaired and physically disabled persons are among those who could benefit from automated transcription of meetings. Existing automatic speech recognition systems perform poorly in meetings because the vocabularies are not constrained, speech is spontaneous and overlapping, and microphones may be not be positioned for optimal sound quality. To support the development of meeting room technologies, NIST is providing a development and evaluation infrastructure including new metrics and evaluation tools, new input/output specifications, and collections of research data. This work will help advance the state of the art of automatic transcription and lead to advances in speech recognition and automated transcription.

NIST also has a project under way to assess and promote advances in “rich transcription,” which seeks to make transcriptions more readable through techniques such as breaking text into sentences or other units and noting when different people start or stop speaking.

For more information, visit www.nist.gov/speech/ and click on “Publications.”

Contact: David Pallett, (301) 975-2935, david.pallett@nist.gov.

Intelligent Control of Mobility Systems

Autonomous vehicles could help the disabled carry out many tasks of daily living, such as traveling to the doctor’s office or commuting to and from work. To develop intelligent mobile systems such as robots and autonomous vehicles, U.S. industry needs architectures and interface standards to ensure interoperability, real-time sensing and measurement for control systems, and metrics for evaluating performance of components and systems. NIST develops methods to evaluate the performance of advanced sensors, algorithms for obstacle detection and avoidance, autonomous mission/task planners, and the ability of robotic systems to execute tactical behaviors effectively and intelligently.

For further information, visit www.mel.nist.gov/proj/icms.htm.

Contact: Maris Juberts, (301) 975-3424, maris.juberts@nist.gov.

Reference Test Arenas for Mobile Robots

NIST has developed a testbed for evaluating autonomous mobile robots that aid in urban search and rescue. The course, which is open to the robotics community worldwide, is encouraging comparisons among robot designs, reuse of “best of class” algorithms, and robustness of robots overall. The knowledge gained from the rescue work could be applied to robots designed for assistive purposes.

Robots designed to help physically challenged individuals would need control features similar to those found in rescue robots. In a rescue scenario, for instance, a robot’s job is to locate human victims and hazards amid rubble and other obstacles, map the environment, and communicate the locations of victims and hazards within the map to human rescuers. Robots designed to assist the disabled or elderly could have similar tasks. The NIST test course already is set up for appropriate tests. It contains a section that represents obstacles encountered in a home environment. Here, robots are evaluated for ability to negotiate hallways, avoid furniture and appliances, and send off help signals if assistance is needed. Tests are designed that isolate sensing, behavioral, and physical challenges.

For more information, visit www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/n00-13.htm.

Contact: Adam Jacoff, (301) 975-4235, adam.jacoff@nist.gov.

Advanced Technology Program

NIST’s Advanced Technology Program (ATP) fosters economic growth through partnerships with the private sector that accelerate the development of high-risk, broadly enabling technologies and help to bridge the gap between the laboratory and the marketplace. A number of ATP projects are focusing on assistive technologies. For example, one project is developing robotic training devices to teach people with neurological impairments how to walk. See additional examples at www.nist.gov/public_affairs/factsheet/atpassistivetech.htm.