Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Open Access Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Computer Science (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Computer Science

Advisor 1

Myounghoon Jeon

Committee Member 1

Scott A Kuhl

Committee Member 2

Keith Vertanen

Abstract

However, it is hard specifically for people with visual impairments to do exercise without proper guidance. They have accessibility issues and thus, without others ’ help, they cannot be sure if they are doing exercise in a consistent form. To address this problem, I have developed a Musical Exercise platform for people with visual impairments . With the help of audio feedback of Musical Exercise, people with visual impairments can perform exercises in a good form consistently. To assess usability of the system and compare different audio profiles of the system, I designed six different con ditions, including blindfolded or visual without audio conditions, and blindfolded or visual with two different types of audio feedback (discrete vs. continuous) conditions. Eighteen sighted participants participated in the experiment, by doing two exercises - wall sit and squat with all six conditions. The System Usability Scale results show that Musical Exercise is a usable exercise assistance system without any adverse effect on exercise completion time or perceived workload (NASA - TLX). Also, the results confirm that with a specific sound design (i.e., discrete), blindfolded sighted people can do exercise as consistently as sighted people. This implies that not all sounds equally work and thus, care is required to refine auditory displays considering user s, tasks, and environments. Potentials and limitations of Musical Exercise and future works are discussed with the results.

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