CAVIAR: a vibrotactile device for accessible reaching

CAVIAR is designed to aid people with vision impairment in locating, identifying, and acquiring objects in their peripersonal space. A mobile phone, worn on the chest, captures video in front of the user; the computer vision component locates the user's hand and objects in the video stream. The auditory component informs the user about the presence of objects. On user confirmation, the reaching component sends signals to vibrotactile actuators on the user's wristband, guiding the hand to a specific object. This paper describes an end-to-end prototype of CAVIAR and its formative evaluation.