Lecture On Aids For Visually Impaired, Oct. 16

10-14-97
University Park, Pa. -- Roberta Klatzky, professor and head of the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, will discuss her research focusing on developing a navigation aid for visually impaired people on Thursday, Oct. 16.

"Helping Visually Impaired People to Navigate: A Collaboration Between Technology and Basic Behavioral Science" is the topic of the 4:30 p.m. talk that will be held in the HUB Gallery Lounge on the University Park campus. A 3:45 p.m. reception will be held. The public is invited to attend.

Klatzky's talk will describe her project, which combines a number of technological advances with basic and applied research in behavioral science. The navigation aid uses global positioning satellite technology, a geographic information system and auditory "virtual reality." It is based on basic behavioral research that investigates how well blind and sighted people are able to perceive the location of a sound in space. It also helps them to learn about the spatial layout of locations by walking among them.

Klatzky is a member of the Center for Neural Basis of Cognition and a professor of the Human-Computer Interaction Institute in the School of Computer Science. She is the author of more than 100 articles and has authored or edited four books.

The talk is part of the Weiss Graduate Scholar Seminar Series.

****