João Guerreiro, LASIGE integrated member, was the guest on the 90 Segundos de Ciência podcast, on 19 November 2024, talking about design of virtual environments that complement images with auditory stimuli and vibrations.

In his research, centred on human-machine interaction, our researcher tries to understand ways of making interaction with common technologies and technologies that are emerging, such as virtual reality, accessible to blind people.

Virtual environments and virtual reality are almost always developed with a predominant visual component, requiring visual feedback to be able to interact with these technologies in different entertainment, social and work contexts. This ends up excluding or creating very poor experiences for people with visual impairments and blind people in particular.

The focus of this research is therefore to find alternative representations to the visual representation, as for example through audio or through vibrations (haptically), so that blind people can also participate in these experiences and use these applications.

The podcast is available here.