This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (CFDA 47.070 - Computer and Information Science and Engineering program) to the University of Maine System provides $1,126,197 to develop a multisensory navigation assistance tool to aid individuals with visual impairments. The three-year project aims to: Identify information access requirements and optimize delivery via multisensory smartphone interfaces to support indoor navigation for blind and visually impaired individuals. Create...
This Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) provides $616,316 to the Regents of the University of Michigan to develop a multi-modal interface for non-visual navigation. The project aims to create hardware and software to increase the functionality and impact of smartphone apps for assisting blind and visually impaired individuals. Key products include a glasses-mounted system with a camera, vibrotactile and auditory feedback channels, and a smartphone...
The National Eye Institute (NEI) awarded a $624,379 federal Project Grant (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) to The Johns Hopkins University to develop an objective tool for evaluating the visual accessibility of indoor spaces. The project aims to create a smartphone app that can 1) visualize an environment for a specified level of vision impairment, 2) identify hazardous features, and 3) generate visibility metrics to quantify object visibility. The tool will be developed and validated through...
This Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (NEI), under the Vision Research federal grant program (CFDA 93.867), provides $624,064 to the University of Massachusetts (UMass) to develop a practical guide-dog robot as an additional navigation assistance solution for blind or low-vision (BLV) individuals. The key products and services to be delivered include: New quadruped robot hardware designed through a human-centered approach, featuring compactness, portability, extended...
The National Eye Institute (NEI), under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, awarded a $568,367 Project Grant (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to develop a low-cost system for the real-time automatic conversion of visual diagrams into accessible dual vibrotactile and enhanced visual forms. This system will allow individuals who are blind or visually impaired to use touch, residual vision, or a combination of both to access graphical...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (NEI) Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867) will support research to investigate how humans form allocentric (world-centered) spatial maps of 3D environments using visual information, without physical exploration. The $218,068 award to the University of Pennsylvania will fund two aims: 1) Identifying brain regions that support viewpoint-independent, allocentric representations of both viewed ("scene space") and...
The National Eye Institute (NEI) awarded a $559,871 Project Grant under CFDA 93.867 (Vision Research) to Newhaptics Corp to develop a refreshable Braille and tactile graphic device with multipoint touch sensing. The goal is to create a direct manipulation interface for blind and visually impaired computer users, equivalent to a graphical user interface for sighted users. The device will enable blind users to directly manipulate screen objects using drag-and-drop, drawing, and re-size functions...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) aims to develop an "Attentive Knowledge Device for Visual Assistance" that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision technologies to better assist persons with visual impairment. The $602,198 award, effective July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2027, will fund the University of Southern California to: 1) engage partners to select optimal machine vision algorithms for real-time...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (NEI), under the Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867), provides $589,212 to the University of California, Santa Cruz to investigate the developmental mechanisms underlying the integration of visual and auditory spatial information, and how this process impacts natural spatial orienting behaviors. The key objectives are to determine the critical period for multisensory integration (MSI) development, quantify how changes in...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Early-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) Project Grant, awarded under CFDA 47.041 Engineering, will leverage virtual reality (VR) and wearable technologies to study how individuals with visual impairment navigate through crowded urban environments. The $300,000 grant, awarded to New York University, aims to elucidate the sensorimotor interactions and cognitive processes underpinning the navigation of persons with visual impairment through...