Abstract
As an approach for visually impaired students to learn science, we are developing a system which makes them perceive scientific things, e.g., mathematical 3D objects and dynamical phenomena, by means of a haptic device. This paper describes the first attempt towards the construction of the system. In our system, the touching model application, that is, the program which enables them to recognize the virtual reality of a scientific thing controlled by the haptic device, and blind students can experience the thing by haptic sense. They can, thereby, have mental images of scientific objects and phenomena which plays an essential role in understanding science. As the preliminary examination, we made some trial touching models and got the blind subjects to try them in order to clarify the validity and the problem of our system. We explain these touching models and the results of these experiments as well as the valuable comments from the subjects. Furthermore, the directivity off future developments of the system is addressed based on the knowledge acquired from this experiment.
