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arXiv · 2604.14637

Touching Space: Accessible Map Exploration Through Conversational Audio-Haptic Interaction

Li Liu·Jiaming Qu·Marc Jowell Bagaoisan·David T. Lee·Leilani H. Gilpin
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Abstract

Most existing assistive navigation tools focus on providing real-time guidance for Blind and Low-Vision (BLV) people, but few support building a holistic spatial understanding of unfamiliar environments before travel. Such cognitive map construction (e.g., knowing that a fountain is south of a tower and west of a hotel) is important for pre-travel planning, yet remains underexplored in prior work. To address this gap, we present Touching Space, an end-to-end system that retrieves map data for a target place and loads it into a frontend interface for exploration. The system combines haptic and audio feedback: users explore spatial layouts through touch and ask spoken questions to a conversational agent during exploration. Touching Space contributes a conversational interface that supports BLV users in building cognitive maps on commodity hardware.

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Li Liu, Jiaming Qu, Marc Jowell Bagaoisan, David T. Lee, Leilani H. Gilpin. 2026-04-16. Touching Space: Accessible Map Exploration Through Conversational Audio-Haptic Interaction. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.14637

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