Alternative modalities for visually impaired users to control smart TVs
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Alternative modalities for visually impaired users to control smart TVs Daniel Costa 1
& Carlos Duarte
1
Received: 10 October 2019 / Revised: 12 August 2020 / Accepted: 18 August 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
Smart TVs offer a variety of features that increase interactivity and available services when compared to other TVs. Furthermore, remote controls have become more complex, with more and smaller buttons, making interaction difficult for people with visual impairments. To address some of these concerns, the solution described herein offers, through a mobile application, a set of alternative interaction modalities ranging from midair gestures to speech commands. This paper presents the results of a user study comparing user and system performance using the proposed modalities. Touch and speech were the most efficient modalities. The combined usage of the mobile application and TalkBack resulted in more user errors, consequence of the introduction of an additional interaction layer. Most participants reported they would replace the remote control with this solution. The discussion of the findings and a lessons learned section are the main contributions of this work. Keywords Accessibility, visually impaired users . Multimodality . Touch gestures . Mid-air gestures . Speech recognition . User centered design . TV applications . Smart TV
1 Introduction Smart TVs, also known as connected TVs, are designed to provide a more immersive experience for television viewers by delivering interactive features such as Internet TV, online interactive media, over-the-top content (OTT), as well as on-demand streaming media, and home networking access in addition to the regular television content. Usually, software applications or “apps” can be installed on demand via an app store or marketplace, in a similar manner to how apps are integrated in mobile devices. Examples of popular TV applications
* Daniel Costa [email protected]
1
LASIGE, Departamento de Informática, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal
Multimedia Tools and Applications
include NetFlix, Facebook or Youtube. Visually impaired (VI) users, like everyone else, want to consume this kind of applications on their TVs for their own entertainment. TV applications are highly reliant on visual content which can pose serious accessibility barriers to VI users. The lack of feedback about what is rendered on the screen is one of the main reported causes for these users not fully enjoying the capabilities of their televisions [10, 14, 31]. Nevertheless, the output is not the only culprit. The remote control is the universal input device for TV. In the last years it has evolved along with televisions. It has more buttons and it is more complex than it was before. Remote control buttons are now likely to be smaller and will often have multiple functions attached to them. Some users may not see or feel the buttons very well; colored buttons are difficult to identify by co
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