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Behavioral Intervention

Tactile Aids for Blindness

N/A

Recruiting

Research Sponsored by University of Delaware

Eligibility Criteria Checklist

Specific guidelines that determine who can or cannot participate in a clinical trial

Must have

Participants should be blind or visually impaired for greater than 10 years, either congenitally or acquired

Participants must use tactile aids regularly

Must not have

Participants with amputations or outer extremity conditions affecting hand use will be excluded.

Timeline

Screening 3 weeks

Treatment Varies

Follow Up through study completion, 4 years.

Awards & highlights

No Placebo-Only Group

Summary

This trial aims to improve tactile aids by using materials chemistry to create tactile sensations instead of physical bumps or textures. The study will test how well low vision or blind individuals can identify objects with these new tactile

Who is the study for?

This trial is for individuals with low vision or blindness. Participants should be able to perceive tactile sensations and perform tasks that involve identifying objects using touch. There are no specific exclusion criteria provided, but typically participants would not have other conditions affecting their sense of touch.

What is being tested?

The study is testing new tactile aids designed with special materials to help blind subjects identify objects better than traditional aids like bumps or textures. It measures how accurately and quickly subjects can recognize different items using these new aids.

What are the potential side effects?

Since this trial involves tactile aids and does not include medications or invasive procedures, there are no typical side effects as seen in drug trials. However, participants may experience fatigue or frustration during the object identification tasks.

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

You may be eligible if you check “Yes” for the criteria below

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I have been blind or visually impaired for over 10 years.

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I regularly use devices to help me with touch or feeling.

Exclusion Criteria

You may be eligible for the trial if you check “No” for criteria below:

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I do not have any amputations or conditions that affect my hand use.

Timeline

Screening ~ 3 weeks3 visits

Treatment ~ Varies

Follow Up ~ through study completion, 4 years.

Screening ~ 3 weeks

Treatment ~ Varies

Follow Up ~through study completion, 4 years.

This trial's timeline: 3 weeks for screening, Varies for treatment, and through study completion, 4 years. for reporting.

Treatment Details

Study Objectives

Study objectives can provide a clearer picture of what you can expect from a treatment.

Primary study objectives

Success rate for correctly interpreting a tactile numeric plot of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of four countries.

Success rate to completion for a fake money counting task.

Success time to completion for a fake money counting task.

+3 more

Awards & Highlights

No Placebo-Only Group

All patients enrolled in this study will receive some form of active treatment.

Trial Design

3Treatment groups

Experimental Treatment

Group I: Optimal design of bumps and designer materials in tactile aidsExperimental Treatment3 Interventions

Reflecting the lack of standardized methods or benchmarks for tactile technologies, the known limits of tactile sensitivity was narrowed from millimeters, microns, to nanometers within the last 10 years by use of metal wires, wrinkled plastics, and silanes, respectively. Investigators will determine the optimal design of traditional bumps which yields the highest tactile stimulus in the smallest area. Investigators expect to find that current bumps are larger than necessary, and that the same information could be placed into a smaller area (higher information density). Then, investigators will augment bumps with designer materials to increase the tactile stimulus from a bump, thereby permitting even smaller bumps to increase information density. Beyond optimal design methods, the investigators' quantitative methods, enabled by making the mechanical stimulus the dependent variable, also serve as benchmarks between tactile aids.

Group II: Identifying and synthesizing high-contrast tactile materials without physical featuresExperimental Treatment3 Interventions

Beyond the few materials investigators previously identified, it is unknown which materials are useful for creating tactile sensations. Common material properties such as a friction coefficient or hydrophilicity are insufficiently detailed to accurately predict friction forces-the basis of tactile stimuli. The investigators will use expertise in connecting tactile sensations with chemical structure through mechanical testing, theory, and human testing. The investigators' goal is to identify materials that lead to high tactile contrast without relying on physical features. (Tactile contrast is defined by the investigators as large differences in friction which are easily distinguishable by humans during free tactile exploration.)

Group III: Building tactile aids with designer materials for plots, games, and object labelingExperimental Treatment3 Interventions

Investigators will build static tactile aids with designer materials, i.e., silanes and polymers coatings. These aids will be a mathematical plot, a board game, and simulated money. Investigators will compare the speed, accuracy, and amount of information of hybrid tactile aids made from designer materials and physical features to traditional tactile aids made only with bumps.

0 / 3Eligibility criteria met