Design for Special Needs
SENSORY NAVIGATION
Design for Special Needs
SENSORY NAVIGATION Design for Special Needs Nayan Shrimali | 7th Semester | Furniture &Interior Design | NID
Guide : Prave en Nahar
Brief Desiging a tool/system for visually impaired person which can help them in solving there day to day life problems with ease.
Field Research (Blind People’s Association)
Blind People's Association is a professional organization which believes in providing equal opportunities to all categories of people with disabilities. Consistent with the philosophy, it works for providing education, employment opportunities, equal rights and quality life for them. BPA, understands that gainful employment plays an essential part in the life of a person because it gives him status and binds him to the society. Acceptance of disabled persons at work can be viewed
as society's acceptance of these Persons without discrimination. However, many people with disabilities are still unable to obtain gainful occupation and are dependent on others. Our Employment and Placement services is a step towards providing employment as well as self-employment opportunities for people with disability, so that they can be financially independent and self sufficient.
Blind People’s Association (BPA) (Map in 3D)
Blind People’s Association (BPA) Journey through the campus
Map of BPA at the front gate
Tactile Map of BPA with brail at the front gate
Blind People’s Association (BPA) Journey through the campus
Key points > Bumps acts as a landmark for wayfinding. > The space allocation is in a very regular grid which reduces the level of confusion in wayfinding for visually impaired. > No signage provided inside the campus for navigation. > All buildings have tactile tiles installed in them with the facility of ramps and lifts.
Four wheeler parking
> Color contrast is seen but at very dull level. > Allocation of parking space for four wheeler is very unorganised.
Parking Area
Main Junction for Navigation
> Lack of barricades leads to unorganised parking and hinders the movement of people.
Two wheeler + Four wheeler
LEGEND Two wheeler parking
Buildings
Bumps
Path
Garden
Ramps
Road
Vehical traffic movement in Blind People’s Association (BPA)
GATE 1
GATE 2
GATE 3
Tactile reception inside buildings Tactile reception inside buildings
Different ofCane/walking using Cane/walking stick Different stylestyle of using stick
Observation and Interview synthesis
> Visually impaired usually uses the technique of counting the steps between two points and according to the counting they help themselves in oreinting towards the right direction. > Different sounds coming from different spaces also addes to the wayfinding technique of blind people. > Landmarks used by visually impaired are normally ignored by sited people. > Bumps at junction of the roads plays a key role in navigation.
> Inside a building wayfinding becomes more simple as there are brail signages on walls of offices and classrooms and other is that the wall running on the side becomes the key tool for wayfinding. > Doors and windows coming on the way becomes the key landmarks for them. > Texture on the wall remains constant all over the campus which reduces the individuality of a space. > Different slopes at different buildings also adds to the identification of it.
> Major issue arises at the point of finding the entrance to a building. > Handrails running on the ramps and staircases helps visually impaired in keeping their oreintation at right direction. > Exit of one building becomes the entrance to the way for aother building. > Different types of entrances at different buildings leads to the identification of individual space.
> Pillars on the outer part of the building helps in navigating and deciding the position for the blind. > Occurrence of spaces like seating area or garden with different attriutes on either sides helps in navigation. > Color contrast helps a visually impaired in identifying the object of the space.
Visually impaired who are new to campus takes help of their colleagues for way finding.
Visually impaired who knows the campus from long do not need any kind of help or support for wayfinding they are very habitual to the place and the surroundings.
Visually Impaired perception Blind people’s mental space is better described as populated with space features than with objects, in other words, features that are abstract perceptual patterns formed by the arrangement of things in space and time (events), such as footpaths, slopes indicating entrance, or the sound of cars or traffic When visual information is missing, the environment is perceived through hearing, smelling, touching and being touched, and path integration. Objects can be detected by the variations of the ambient sound field as one moves around or makes noise, and objects can be identified on the basis of the sound they make.
Visually impaired Spatial environment perception The PROXIMAL SPACE is associated with the perception of obstacles: information about ground surface, including changes in texture, drop-offs, step-ups, potholes, fences, walls, and other hazards. Traversing proximal space is dealt with using obstacle aids (long cane, dogs).
The EXTENDED SPACE is made up of the features of the space adjoining the travel path on either side and overhead, within the range of the extended space provided by the long cane and hearing. These features are perceived by observing the acoustic pattern of movement (environmental flow) and the echo of the cane/feet on the ground and walls. Open areas (roads), walls of buildings, and noisy roundabouts are patterns that are preferentially identified.
GETTING INFORMATION AND USING IT
ORIENTATING WITHIN THE ENVIRONMENT
NAVIGATING WITHIN THE ENVIRONMENT
ENTRANCE AND EXIT IDENTIFICATION
Brain Storming
Visually Impaired Navigation tools
d r a o b t p e c n o C
t p e c n o C
d r a bo
Selected Concepts Mosaic Shade concept
Musical Barricades concept
Mosaic Shade concept
Tree canopy shade design
Musical Barricades concept
> Usually barricades for a person with sight are objects which defines a place or area and its a vital part of our navigation system. > Here the barricades acts a xylophone, so when a visually imapaired hits it with its stick it produces music/sound. > The sound helps the visually impaired person in navigating through a space with comfort.
Form explorations
3D visualisation of musical barricades
> These barricade is a set of seven different size semi-circular metal plates fitted on a pipe. > One unit can be joined to other unit and whole barricade can be created. > The barricades acts a xylophone, so when the visually impaired hits the plate with his/her stick it produces sound so whille walking the person can play around with the barricade in a different way. > It helps the blind in finding the start and end of a barricaded area in an open space with ease and fun.
Mosaic Shade concept Mosaic Shade concept
> Shade wirth holes in it so that sunlight can pass through it and creates a pattern of light on the ground surface. > The holes in the shade will be covered with different color acryllic so that the pattern formation becomes more interesting and good color contrast can be created. > The shade will be running on the outer walls of a building which will act as way finding tool for visually impaired. > This will help a visually impaired person in navigating through a open space with a diferent perspective and feel.
Form exploration
Mock up models
Shade design wtih strips moulded in curves for air & light flow
Shade design with holes on the top for light and air flow
Final Concept Tree canopy shade design > Shade design inspired from tree canopy. > A shade which has ability to cut sun’s light in a way the leaves do when the wind blows them. >Sense of light/heat known as Thermoception will allow the visually impaired person to sense and feel the frequent cut of light. > A shade which produces sound like the leaves of tree do when the wind blows it. > The sound will help a visually impaired in oreinting himself within the environment. > The shade can be used inside any institutional building/ office premises/ gardens/ public access spaces. > It can become a landmark for visually impaired through his/her journey in a space.
Thermoception Thermoception is the sense of heat and the absence of heat (cold) by the skin and including internal skin passages, or, rather, the heat flux (the rate of heat flow) in these areas. There are specialized receptors for cold (declining temperature) and to heat. The cold receptors play an important part in the animal's sense of smell, telling wind direction. The heat receptors are sensitive to infrared radiation and can occur in specialized organs, for instance in pit vipers. The thermoceptors in the skin are quite different from the homeostatic thermoceptors in the brain (hypothalamus), which provide feedback on internal body temperature. (see temperature receptor) This starts with sensory receptors that detect the temperature, known as cutaneous thermoreceptors. “Cutaneous� refers to them being found in the skin. These are sensitive to changes in temperature. There are different types types, some are warm receptors and cold receptors. Warm receptors send signals to the brain during an increase in temperature, and cold receptors fire signals when there is a decrease in temperature (and conversely, when the temperature is falling, the firing rate of warm receptors decrease and vice versa for the cold receptors). When the temperature is over 45 degrees C, and less than 5 degrees C (these values change slightly depending on your source), pain receptors called thermal nociceptors fire signals. These signals are what we experience as pain.
http://www.themedschoolproject.com/2011/12/sixth-sense-thermoception.html
Number of skin temperature receptors
Inspiration board
Form explorations
Mock up models
Final form sketches
Final concept 3D visualisation
Features Acts as a street light in night
Single unit can be tessellated at 45 degree angel, which enables multiple formation according to the space
Shade with wind chimes hanged from it for auditory reception
Helps in oreinting within a environment
Acts as a landmark for visually impaired person
Linear Formation
Circular Formation
Dimensions *All Dimensions in CM
175
134
110
17 9
8 205 247
Top View
*All Dimensions in CM 134
247
11 20 30 40 50
68
320
320
248
248
180
Front View
Side View
Joinery Detail (Wind Chime)
*All Dimensions in CM
3 4
Ø11
2
Ø10 4
2
50
Front View
Side View
Scaled Model (1:5) Photoshoot
The End