Scientific

Abstract – Nonscriptum LLC (www.nonscriptum.com) is a consulting and training firm founded in 2015 by Joan Horvath and Rich “Whosawhatsis” Cameron, based in Pasadena, California. Nonscriptum focuses on teaching educators and scientists how to use maker tech, and together have authored 7 books for the Apress imprint of Springer-Nature, and numerous courses for LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com). Joan is an MIT alumna, recovering rocket scientist and educator, and Rich is an open-source 3D printer hacker who designed the RepRap Wallace and Bukito 3D printers. In this colloquium we will be highlighting our Geometry Lesson Plans for Blind/Visually Impaired Learners. We have been collaborating on the development of open-source lesson plans and a repository of 3D models. These cover various topics in geometry at the middle- and high-school level. These lesson plans are aimed at teachers of blind and visually-impaired learners. Our book Make: Geometry is also now available on Amazon for pre-order, should you want even more hands-on math!

The title and abstract are forthcoming. https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/psychology/faculty/fp4834  

Abstract – Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is the most common cause of visual impairment affecting children in the developed world. For her doctoral research, to help meet the needs of children with CVI, Nicola proposed a practice framework that can be used within an education or rehabilitation context. Nicola’s framework was based on her experience of developing a successful rehabilitation programme to improve her own visual and overall functioning, following a late CVI diagnosis. Nicola identified three main components that led to her improvements, including: developing an individual CVI profile, creating an individualised programme, and empowerment through increasing knowledge and understanding of her condition. Her research on each component of the framework, and on the framework as a whole, showed that it may be an effective approach for supporting children with CVI. https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/research/higher-research-degrees/phd-student-profiles/doctoral-my-story.cfm?studid=FuwubVvVyNI Improving Zoom accessibility for people with hearing impairments People with hearing impairments often use lipreading and speechreading to improve speech comprehension. This approach is helpful but only works if the speaker’s face and mouth are clearly visible. For the benefit of people with hearing impairments on Zoom calls, please enable your device’s camera whenever you are speaking on Zoom, and face the camera while you speak. (Feel free to disable your camera when you aren’t speaking.) Abstract – Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is the most common cause of visual impairment affecting children in the developed world. For her doctoral research, to help meet the needs of children with CVI, Nicola proposed a practice framework that can be used within an education or rehabilitation context. Nicola’s framework was based on her experience of developing a successful rehabilitation programme to improve her own visual and overall functioning, following a late CVI diagnosis. Nicola identified three main components that led to her improvements, including: developing an individual CVI profile, creating an individualised programme, and empowerment through increasing knowledge and understanding of her condition. Her research on each component of the framework, and on the framework as a whole, showed that it may be an effective approach for supporting children with CVI. https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/research/higher-research-degrees/phd-student-profiles/doctoral-my-story.cfm?studid=FuwubVvVyNIImproving Zoom accessibility for people with hearing impairments People with hearing impairments often use lipreading and speechreading to improve speech comprehension. This approach is helpful but only works if the speaker’s face and mouth are clearly visible. For the benefit of people with hearing impairments on Zoom calls, please enable your device’s camera whenever you are speaking on Zoom, and face the camera while you speak. (Feel free to disable your camera when you aren’t speaking.)  

Abstract – Billions of people in the world watch sport media broadcasts to follow their favorite sports, e.g., tennis, soccer, cricket, golf, or Olympic games. They enjoy the actions captured by cameras and microphones on and around the fields. They also socially engage with other fans at home, at a local club, in a stadium and on social media. However, if you are blind or have low-vision (BLV), your overall experience is limited. While TV is providing the state-of-the-art experience for sighted people, BLV need to tune in to radio broadcasts. Although used widely by BLV, radio cannot provide all the actions in real time, in particular the movement of the objects such as the ball, puck, and players, ball kids, referees etc. Action Audio aims to provide frameworks that will make sport media broadcasting accessible to BLV. It provides alternative modalities and allow BLV access all the actions on sports broadcasting. It will also create technologies that let people experience the events live in sport venues. https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/cagatay-goncu https://www.action-audio.com/

Abstract – Smartphones have been a massive boon for people who are blind in terms of their ability to access physical environments. For instance, GPS navigation apps and ride-sharing apps have enabled people who are blind to independently, efficiently, and confidently travel, including places they have never been to before. Despite this progress, there remain situations that are difficult for blind people to navigate. In particular, navigating through unfamiliar indoor environments presents a substantial challenge. In this talk, I will present the work that my group is doing to try to improve the accessibility of indoor environments using smartphone technology. In particular, I will discuss my group’s work, both in the lab and in the field, on harnessing augmented reality technology to perform tasks such as navigation, mapping, and route recording. Lastly, I’ll present some of our successes and also discuss ongoing and future work. https://www.olin.edu/faculty/profile/paul-ruvolo/

Abstract – There is growing evidence that the clinical emphasis on visual acuity in both the diagnosis and the treatment of amblyopia is not sufficient. My research has focused on deficits in motion perception that are present in fellow eyes that have normal visual acuity and also in amblyopic eyes that show improved visual acuity following treatment. Deficits in motion perception occur in several developmental disorders, and they are commonly attributed to vulnerability in the dorsal visual stream. Amblyopia, however, is not a clear example of dorsal stream vulnerability because the motion deficits are most evident at slow speeds that activate regions of both ventral and dorsal visual cortex, and the well-documented spatial vision deficits involve the ventral stream. In addition to uncertain neural correlates, the real-world functional impact of deficits on computer-generated psychophysical measures of 2-dimensional motion sensitivity is not known. To address these issues, my research on amblyopia has expanded to include assessments of reading and visuomotor skills, which have more obvious functional impact and have been attributed to the functioning of the dorsal visual stream. In this talk, I will present recent data showing binocular deficits on specific components of reading ability and visually-guided reaching in children with amblyopia. Interestingly, performance on these tasks shows significant associations with stereopsis and/or motion perception. http://www.giaschilab.ca