Exploring Tactile Maps with One or Two Fingers

Abstract

Real 3D objects are typically explored with high efficiency by several fingers. The largest increase in efficiency is obtained between the use of one and two fingers. The aim of the present experiment was to investigate if the efficiency of identifying a country on a 2D tactile map can be increased by the use of two fingers exploration along opposite sides of the map compared with following along the contour. The result was that there was no significant difference between one-finger and two-finger exploration, but there were significant improvements over sessions. The difference between exploration of 2D and 3D objects is discussed.