Living Through Touch – Smart, Haptic Communication for Inclusion, Accessibility, and Participation
Dates: May 17-18-19, 2021
Time: 12.00 – 18.00 CET (each day)
Venue: Online
Program: see the updated program under https://suitceyes.eu/program/
Sponsorship: More information under https://suitceyes.eu/sponsorship/
Accessibility: We will provide simultaneous interpretation in International Sign Language, Brazilian Sign Language and closed captioning on Zoom.
Outline
We warmly invite you to join this three-day online event, which will mark nearing the conclusion of our SUITCEYES project. The event will revolve around the general area of deafblindness, presenting SUITCEYES results, as well as related talks by prominent invited guests and engagement activities with the aim to raise awareness and promote continued conversations and actions beyond the project end. Most Symposium contents will have been pre-recorded; panel discussions and Q&A sessions will be live. All sessions will be accompanied with international sign language interpretation and we intend to also add captions for further accessibility.
Program
See the full program here. The daily schedule is subdivided into 45′ sessions with an additional 15′ break in between time.
May 17th
The first day is dedicated to presenting SUITCEYES research results, including amongst others:
- Sensing (computer vision and sensor technologies)
- Perception (psychophysics and user studies for optimizing haptic feedback)
- Informing (haptograms for haptic communication of semantic contents)
- Learning (game-based learning and communication)
- Wearing (Smart textiles as communicative interfaces
May 18th
The second day includes sessions on related research conducted outside SUITCEYES, as well as talks by key figures working with assistive technologies or dealing with issues related to technology and inclusion and equal rights for all.
May 19th
The final day involves a presentation of the results of policy studies conducted within SUITCEYES, providing a set of recommendations to be submitted to the panel of policy makers at the next session later in the day. Other sessions include a series of panel discussions that aim to discuss the paths forward beyond SUITCEYES, for example presenting action plans by policy makers, National Agencies, and people with Deafblindness.
Participation
More than 400 symposium participants from 39 countries have registered.
A Registration is no longer possible.
Nevertheless, stay up to date: Reports and summaries will be published here on www.suitceyes.eu
Target Audiences
Participants from diverse fields are expected, including:
- researchers
- technologists
- national agencies and other organisations dealing with issues of deafblindness
- policy makers
- people with deafblindness
- other stakeholders
More about SUITCEYES
With a core aim to improve the quality of life of people with deafblindness, we have been developing haptic communication technologies that involve detection, capture and recognition of environmental cues (including face, object and scenes) with the use of sophisticated algorithms, computer vision, and sensor technologies. These are then conveyed to the user by the means of a smart wearable vibrotactile actuator-based semantic sign system. We also engaged in gamification activities design in order to promote the use of this technology and to facilitate learning in educational settings and to also offer some fun and recreational activities to users.
All our research endeavours have been user-centered and based on an extensive user study, including 81 in-depth interviews in five European countries conducted early in the project. The technology has been subjected to psychophysical tests and evaluations to ensure that vibration patterns and semantic contents are perceived as intended by human users. We have also examined the policy landscape by conducting extensive policy studies in five European countries, resulting in a set of recommendations regarding assistive technologies.
