Literature Reviews
Reviewed research papers, articles, and publications relevant to digital accessibility.
37 results found tagged sensory substitution.
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SoundSpace: What and Where Through Sound
SoundSpace is a real-time sensory substitution system designed to give blind and visually impaired users simultaneous awareness of what objects are present in a scene and where they are located, without relying exclusively on verbal scene description…
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Touching a Cat Without Touch: Does Mid-Air Ultrasound Haptic Feedback Promote Relaxation in Virtual Cat Interaction?
Hosoi and colleagues investigate whether mid-air ultrasound haptics — tactile sensations produced by focused acoustic radiation pressure, with no device worn on the user's skin — can convey the feel of a virtual cat convincingly enough to support rel…
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HapticLens: Interactive Vibrotactile Haptic Generation from Spatially Localized Video Motion
HapticLens is an interactive method for generating single-actuator vibrotactile signals from arbitrary video content by letting a designer select a spatial region of interest and converting motion within that region into a vibration waveform in real …
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ElectroGrasp: Electrotactile Aids for Visually Impaired Individuals in Anticipatory Planning and Control of Grasp
Sighted people pre-shape their hand before touching an object - a visually-driven anticipatory grasp plan that visually impaired (VI) users cannot form, leading to the characteristic 'double grip' (initial contact followed by compensatory regrasp) th…
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Augmenting Imagery with Multimodal Vibrotactile Representations: Touch, Feel, and Hear
This CHI 2026 paper addresses a long-standing gap in image accessibility for blind and visually impaired (BVI) users: while alt text, sonification, tactile graphics, and refreshable Braille displays convey shape, layout, and identity, they rarely com…
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Finger Dance: A Sound Game for Blind People
This paper from the University of Oregon presents Finger Dance, an original audio-based rhythm-action game designed specifically for visually impaired players. The authors take a different approach from the usual sensory substitution strategy (replac…
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Learning and Perceiving Colors Haptically
This paper presents a novel system for enabling blind individuals to learn, perceive, and compare colours through haptic (touch-based) feedback. Colour is a purely visual feature that cannot be perceived through auditory or olfactory senses, yet it p…
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Blind Hero: Enabling Guitar Hero for the Visually Impaired
This paper from the University of Nevada, Reno presents Blind Hero, a modification of the popular video game Guitar Hero that replaces visual stimuli with haptic feedback to enable visually impaired players to participate. The system uses a custom ha…
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Rock Vibe: Rock Band® Computer Games for People with No or Limited Vision
This paper presents Rock Vibe, a modification of the commercial Rock Band® video game that replaces visual cues with haptic vibrations and audio feedback to enable people with no or limited vision to play the drumming component. The system uses an Ar…
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Vi-Bowling: A Tactile Spatial Exergame for Individuals with Visual Impairments
This paper presents VI Bowling, an accessible exergame (exercise video game) for blind and visually impaired players that introduces tactile dowsing — a novel interaction technique using vibrotactile feedback from a Nintendo Wii remote to perform spa…