Ritwika Ghose

Bio: Ritwika Ghose is an academic researcher from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. The author has contributed to research in topics: The Internet & Mobile computing. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 21 citations.

Architecture of a web browser for visually handicapped people

Abstract: Internet has brought about an incredible improvement in human access to knowledge and information. However, blind people face difficulties in accessing these text materials. Web browsers for the visually handicapped people in the past have been limited to converting documents to Braille or speech, or extracting text and filtering. However, the human aspects of web surfing for blind people have not been adequately addressed. This paper presents an architecture of an open source, light weight web browser that makes it easy for the visually handicapped people to surf the web. The proposed architecture allows a blind person to navigate any web content through simple speech commands and voice feedback to any keyboard operation. The browser will have an integrated text extraction engine that inspects the content of the page to construct a structured representation. The internal nodes of the structure represent various levels of abstraction of the content. This helps in easy and flexible navigation of the page so as to rapidly home into objects of interest. Finally, the browser is integrated to an automatic Text-To-Speech and Text-To-Braille transliteration engine that outputs the selected text in the form of speech and/or Braille.

VoiceMail architecture in desktop and mobile devices for the Blind people

Abstract: The advancement in computer based accessible systems has opened up many avenues for the visually impaired across a wide majority of the globe. Audio feedback based virtual environment like, the screen readers have helped Blind people to access internet applications immensely. However, a large section of visually impaired people in different countries in particular, the Indian sub-continent could not benefit much from such systems. This was primarily due to the difference in the technology required for Indian languages compared to those corresponding to other popular languages of the world. In this paper, we describe the VoiceMail system architecture that can be used by a Blind person to access e-Mails easily and efficiently. The contribution made by this research has enabled the Blind people to send and receive voice based e-Mail messages in their native language with the help of a computer or a mobile device. Our proposed system GUI has been evaluated against the GUI of a traditional mail server. We found that our proposed architecture performs much better than that of the existing GUIs.

An insight into smartphone-based assistive solutions for visually impaired and blind people: issues, challenges and opportunities

Abstract: Blind people are confronting a number of challenges in performing activities of daily life such as reading labels on a product, identification of currency notes, exploring unknown spaces, identifying the appearance of an object of interest, interacting with digital artifacts, operating a smartphone’s user interface and selecting non-visual items on a screen. The emergence of smartphone-based assistive technologies promotes independence, ease of use and usability resulting in improved quality of life yet poses several challenging opportunities. We have reviewed research avenues in smartphone-based assistive technologies for blind people, highlighted the need for technological advancements, accessibility-inclusive interface paradigm, and collaboration between medical specialists, computer professionals, usability experts and domain users to realize the potential of ICT-based interventions for blind people. This paper analyzes a comprehensive review of the issues and challenges for visually impaired and blind people with the aim to highlight the benefits and limitations of the existing techniques and technologies. Future research ventures are also highlighted as a contribution to the field.

TetraMail: a usable email client for blind people

Abstract: Electronic Mail has become an essential tool of communication and collaboration for sighted, visually impaired, and blind people However, due to inconsistent interface design, lack of logical order of navigational items, the diverse set of screen sizes and orientations, complicated text-entry layouts, and inadequate mapping of haptic feedback, the existing email-related activities on smartphone contribute to several issues In addition, blind people also confront problems in precisely accessing the non-visual items on touchscreen interfaces to perform common email-related activities like sending, receiving, organizing, deleting, filtering, searching, and managing spam emails Due to these problems, blind people are facing difficulties not only in operating a smartphone but also in performing several email-related activities Furthermore, spam and junk emails cause frustration and contribute to cognitive overload We proposed TetraMail, a usable blind-friendly email client to overcome the challenges pertaining to the accessibility and usability of email-related activities on a smartphone The proposed email client is evaluated through an empirical study of 38 blind participants by performing 14 email activities The results of this prototype implementation show an improved user experience, accuracy in task completion, and better control over touchscreen interfaces in performing basic activities of managing emails The results demonstrate that TetraMail is an accessibility-inclusive email client enabling blind people to have a better user interaction experience and minimal cognitive overload in managing emails

Voice Based System in Desktop and Mobile Devices for Blind People.

Abstract: Voice mail architecture helps blind people to access e-mail and other multimedia functions of operating system (songs, text).Also in mobile application SMS can be read by system itself. Now a days the advancement made in computer technology opened platforms for visually impaired people across the world. It has been observed that nearly about 60% of total blind population across the world is present in INDIA. In this paper, we describe the voice mail architecture used by blind people to access E-mail and multimedia functions of operating system easily and efficiently. This architecture will also reduce cognitive load taken by blind to remember and type characters using keyboard. It also helps handicapped and illiterate people.

VoiceMail architecture in desktop and mobile devices for the Blind people

Abstract: The advancement in computer based accessible systems has opened up many avenues for the visually impaired across a wide majority of the globe. Audio feedback based virtual environment like, the screen readers have helped Blind people to access internet applications immensely. However, a large section of visually impaired people in different countries in particular, the Indian sub-continent could not benefit much from such systems. This was primarily due to the difference in the technology required for Indian languages compared to those corresponding to other popular languages of the world. In this paper, we describe the VoiceMail system architecture that can be used by a Blind person to access e-Mails easily and efficiently. The contribution made by this research has enabled the Blind people to send and receive voice based e-Mail messages in their native language with the help of a computer or a mobile device. Our proposed system GUI has been evaluated against the GUI of a traditional mail server. We found that our proposed architecture performs much better than that of the existing GUIs.

Arduino and Solenoid Valve-Based Text to Braille Converter

Abstract: People with visual disabilities find many day-to-day tasks, which include basic and essential communications to be difficult. As a result, they are ought to go through a high chance of exclusion in the society. This prevents them from accessing a lot of information available in the world. They use Braille as a linguistic medium to exchange information. In today's world, many visually defective people face difficulty in learning braille. One of the main disadvantage in this method is the cost of braille products, which is too high to afford for normal people. In order to overcome these challenges, an attempt has been made to come up with a cost-efficient, and easily manageable kit which helps visually impaired people to learn braille at any age. This paper explains how solenoid-based valves are actuated using Arduino to convert English text into six-digit braille code. This six-digit code can be used to teach braille to the visually impaired people.