Human-Computer Synergies in Prosthetic Interactions

Remote sighted assistance provides prosthetic support to people with visual impairments (PVI) through internet-mediated conversational interactions. In these interactions, PVI broadcast live video to remotely-located, sighted people who engage in speech interactions with PVI to create prosthetic support. These interactions can be quite nuanced, creative, and effective. In this paper, we present a design investigation of remote sighted assistance (RSA) in which computer vision capabilities are integrated into the prosthetic interaction, supporting the human participants in various ways. Our study involved creating design scenarios to identify and concretize future possibilities in order to articulate and analyze design rationale for these scenarios, that is to say, strengths and challenges of RSA integrated with CV. We discuss implications for the design of the next generation of remote sighted assistance.