The tactile or the haptic interaction modality is an emerging technology with exciting applications in the interaction design space. Haptic touch allows a user to feel the touch (usually by projecting tactile shape, form or texture on an interface) facilitating a view free interaction model. Apart from mainstream applications, tactile technologies can also be effectively used in for developing applications for visually impaired users.

This project concentrates on exploring haptic-touch and its applications for blind users. Students will devise solutions and concepts within the context of blind, partially blind and color blind users. Students will follow an end-to-end design process, starting from understanding the users and ending with developing prototypes for the solutions.

Students will design state-of-art interaction solutions after understanding user needs and capabilities. The selected solutions will be prototyped with help of required resources. Students will also collaborate with LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad which has immense experience and understanding of the field.The project will be overseen by Sumit Dagar, an interaction designer, a filmmaker and a TED 2011 Fellow. He has been exploring an amalgamation of design, technology and storytelling. One of his known works is Braille Phone, a phone for blind users which was recently presented at TED 2011.

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