Sensate

Industrial Design Human-Centred Design CAD Modelling and Rendering

How might we develop or adapt existing devices and tools for artists who are fully or partially blind that will improve execution in painting and drawing, by allowing them to identify colour and navigate across a canvas, all while experiencing the art in a mess-free way?

Problem

There is a misconception in society that blind and visually impaired — individuals can’t enjoy creative activities since they are unable to see or experience art. In reality, this isn’t the case, as many blind people appreciate creative hobbies such as painting and drawing.

With more than 2 million people living with sightloss in the UK, 30% have lost their sight due to age-related macular degeneration, and 57.2% due to other diseases such as glaucoma and cataracts. These are by far the leading cause of blindness in adults, so many people were not born blind but lost their vision over time. This means that people who appreciated art and colours and engaged in creative hobbies before they lost their eyesight must relearn how to do so. And regardless, those who were born visually impaired shouldn't be excluded from creative expression or appreciation either.

Through primary and secondary research, we realised that learning how to create art can be very difficult for beginners, and equally strenuous for professionals. Blind artists often need to learn new imperfect methods or adapt existing ones to allow them to create, especially since there are virtually no products on the market designed to ease the creative process.

Solution

Sensate is a minimal and innovative assistive tool which assists blind artists with the creation and experience of paintings and drawings. It aims to provide blind users with intuitive and detailed information about colour.

The glove allows a user to scan across a canvas and pinpoint a precise location which they want to detect. Using the dial, they can then ‘feel’ or ‘hear’ colour present in that location.

If ‘feel’ mode is enabled, the pointer of the dial will turn to a braille label indicating the colour which was detected. The users will then feel vibrations on the side of the dial which represent the darkness of the colour If hear mode is enabled, a speaker will give details about the colour detected and its darkness percentage.

Even though Sensate is primarily targeted at blind individuals, it can still be used by others. It would provide anyone who uses it with a new way of experiencing and thinking about colour, and break boundaries when it comes to accessiblity. Braille doesn't have to only be for the blind!

Disclaimer

As part of the project brief, our team was tasked with selecting an existing brand and integrating our product solution into it — Adobe was our chosen brand. Adobe was not engaged in any consultancy or collaborative capacity with this project, and the outcome is in no way endorsed by them. Any publicity is limited to personal and academic use.

Type

Team Project

Duration

October 2021 — April 2022

Role

Chief creative officer

Credits

Project developed in collaboration with Lavinia Ruf, Rita Yammine and Felix Brochier.

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MICHELA PUGLIA

DESIGN ENGINEER