We have developed the newest Real-Time Captioning System which consists of two Stenographic Systems (STENOWORD-PC SYSTEM) and Superimposer (VIP-4100R). The first STENOWORD-PC SYSTEM has as its feature the ability to project the "kana"(one of the 3 Japanese alphabets) on the CRT monitor before displaying the respective"kanji". The second STENOWORD-PC SYSTEM has as its feature the ability to correct wrong letters and omitted letters. We report on the functions of this system and the achieved results.

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The possibility of real-time captioning of news programs was considered for people with impaired hearing. Before we try to realize the system, we need to know the preferred presentation speed and form of the captions. In order to evaluate the intelligibility of real-time captioning, subjects with normal hearing were shown a short news program with captions instead of sound, and their comprehension of its contents was subsequently tested. Results indicated that subjects performed about as well on average after viewing a program with captions as they did after viewing a program with sound, and better than after viewing a program with neither, suggesting that the captions were effective.

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In Japan, Japanece AccessDOS on MS-DOS didn't support SerialKeys which follows General Input Device Emulating Interface (GIDEI) protocol consisting in Universal Design, and also Access Pack for Windows wasn't provieded on Japanese Windows 3.0/3.1. Now we can use SerialKeys on Japanese Windows95 and Macintosh. Therefore SerialKeys input device was developed for people and children with severally involuntary motor impairments. Developed SerialKeys Device realized that they could access WWW on Internet using any kind of two or one switch (es) on/off. This device used a micro-processor and accessibility functions which called Keyboard Navigation on Internet Explorer Ver. 3.0.

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We have been studying how to stimulate a fingertip in order to improve our tactile aid for deaf people. In previous study, we have proposed the usage of tactile sensation that was caused by vibratory or Braille-like convex stimulation. In this study, we have designed new stimulation method that stimuli of consonant or vowel part of speech were presented with vibratory or convex stimulation pattern. From the experimental result, the consonant identification rate became the highest when vibratory stimulation was used for consonant part and convex stimulation was used for vowel part. So, we considered that the consonant identification became easier when the quality of tactile sensation was utilized to tactile aid.

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This paper proposes a communication aid for deaf-blind and visually disabled persons. The aid is constructed with six motors and seven switches. It enables the disabled to indicate a braille by using stimulus of vibration motor. Thus, the disabled are able to input a braille at the same position by pushing the switches. To search for a fit stimulus level of this aid, we experimented with vibration at the their fingers. It was found the effective method for this aid to group the structure and the phase control by stimulus points.

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Human beings are unconsciously to decide when they see a face whether it's male or female. It is necessary to make a fixation points measurement system to analyze the discrimination process in detail. In the past, this kind of measurement was done by an eye-camera. But the eye-camera can't divide a visual field into a peripheral visual field and a central visual field. Therefore, we can only measure movement of fixation points under the influence of peripheral vision. In this system, limited visual field can be moved by the mouse operation, then it is easy to carry out the experiment for subjects. As a result, we found that the fixation points of subjects are mostly stayed in the left face. In the first phase of the discrimination process, we observed a regular movement of fixation points, which started from a left eye and ended at a mouth through a right eye and a nose in many cases.

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[in Japanese]

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The widespread use of GUIs and the Internet has made the information resources of the World Wide Web available to large numbers of people. In addition to images, the Web contains vast quantities of text data. Enabling blind people to access the Web would allow them to enjoy the benefits of this rich variety of textual information. We describe how blind users can access the Web with Netscape by using Screen Reader/2,which has just become an IBM Japan product, and report on existing problems and expected solutions in the nonvisual use of the Web.

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Persons, who needs technology, sometimes are behind most far from its benefits. Is it possible that the Network would build a bridge to fill this deep gap between Disabilities and Engineers? I will introduce several trials on Internet and BBS. for example. "Assistech Club"(BBS about adaptive technology) and "Kokoroweb" (Database of adaptive technologies on WWW). Also I will discuss how engineers can contribute to the society in this area.

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"Obstacle sense"is an ability to detect existence of object by sound field variation, and is one of the circumstance recognition methods of the blind. In this report, the psychological factors of obstacle sense in the sound field in which the plural circumstance noises come from the arbitrary directions were investigated. The movement of the sound image, maybe by the precedence effect, was observed in the case that the wall existed in the side direction of head. The variation of timbre, maybe by the coloration, was observed in the case that the wall existed in the front. The conclusion is that the psychological factors of obstacle sense with respect to the front and side directions were different.

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Generally, blind people, especially the congenitally blind do not understand space. To help them, we developed a CAI (Computer Asisted Instruction) system which supports the blind to get an ability of spatial understanding. This system consists of a personal computer, an image-capture board, and a 3CCD camera. We conducted an experiment using this CAI system on blind school students. The subject shoud try to arrange blocks of different shape according to a problem presented by the system in the form of vocal sounds. When the subject completes a task of arrangement, the block layout is taken by the camera, and the shape and location of each block are analyzed, and the result is outputed by vocal sounds. This CAI system, which gives problems and corrections repeatedly, may help blind children to get the ability of spatial understanding without help of sighted people.

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We have studied methods for transferring electronic character information into Braille so that blind people would be able to access it more easily. We considered two methods ; one presenting a 6-point Braille character by separating the 6 point for 6 digits (6-digits/character method) and another showing one character on one Braille display (one-digit/character method). In pursuit of an optimal display method, both methods were evaluated for ease with which displayed characters could be understood, and then the results were compared. In the result, the 6-digit/character method provided high recognition percentages even for those people with acquired loss of sight and those with normal sight. In this report, we would like to discuss the new passive tactility Braille transmission method and our assessment results thereof.

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In this paper, we propose a support system for the visually impaired. This system helps the visually impaired walk alone or find something lost. It is composed of a digital-camera and potable telephones. When the visually impaired wants to help, he takes a picture around there using the digital-camera. Then the picture is compressed and sent to the supporter by the potable telephone. The supporter watches the received picture and understands his situation, and then he can advise about the trouble. We consider what situation of the visually impaired can be supported and examine its performance, transfer rate and quantity of data. We confirm that this system is useful, and it can support the visually impaired.

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We have been developing a robotic travel aid for the visually impaired person. To use the robotic travel aid for practical use, it is very important to evaluate the performance of the aid from the psychological point of view. In this paper, we describe the short sketch of the aid and psychological field test by a psychologist who blindfolds himself for two days. The evaluation results show that the human-machine cooperation of the aid is almost resonable, but the robustness and safety of the aid are to be improved.

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In this study, a tracking system for walkers using digital portable telephones is considered. A walker's system that consists of a terrestrial magnetic sensor. a pedometer and a microcomputer computes the position of the walker. And its positional information is transmitted to the tracking center using portable telephones. It is difficult to detect the position using the GPS in the places like bustling streets and underground markets, because the GPS can not receive signals from more than four satellites there. On the other hand the results of some walking experiments in the proposed system, show that this system can track the walker there. And we make clear the usefuluess of this system for the tracking of the wandering elderly. But it is necessary to simplify this walker's system for the practical use.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the measurement system that enables to diagnose an initial dementia. We consider that the diagnose is related to attention. In this paper, the pointing movement to a visual target was measured under 3 conditions. Condition 1 ; An only target was presented. Condition 2 ; Auditory stimulation was added from opposite direction of a target. Condition 3 ; Auditory stimulation was added from same direction of a target. As the results of experiments, Condition 3 decreased the error of a pointing movement as compared with other condition.

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Some congenital homonimous hemianopsis patients have exotropia. We tried rehabilitation for the patients with homonymous hemianopsia by Fresnel prism placed on a spectacle lens. But high power Fresnel prism membrane is not clear. Therefore the visual acuity of the patients with this glasses was low. Head mounted display can use for same purpose with less decreasse of thier visual acuity.

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