“Interactive Relief Design”, or DERi, supported by the CNRS RISE program

Two Toulouse projects are supported by the CNRS, through the RISE program. This program aims to support and promote the development of innovative start-ups in certain scientific fields. Interactive Relief Drawing (DERi), on which IRIT researchers are working, is an interactive and digital device that facilitates the daily life of people with visual impairments. DERi is one of these two projects supported by the CNRS. 

“Digital is a real opportunity to foster inclusive education and accessibility of materials for people with visual impairments.”  Cherchonspourvoir.org

The CNRS RISE program

The CNRS RISE program aims to support researchers in the creation of a start-up. This program allows young companies that exploit technologies from a CNRS laboratory and its partners to benefit from a boost. RISE has followed nearly 80 start-up projects in its three years of existence. At the beginning of this year, the sixth class of start-ups supervised by RISE is working on technological innovations in various fields, such as biology, medicine, chemistry, microelectronics, digital and the environment. Open to all projects and young start-ups involving the CNRS, the RISE program allows entrepreneurs to benefit from the expertise and network of CNRS Innovation. The idea is to enable these projects to develop under the right conditions. Winners benefit from a year-long support program, provided by a team of experts who accompany them through the various stages of their project’s development. DERi, an innovative and hopeful device for visually impaired people, is supported by the RISE program. 

DERi, digital device and visual impairments

Developed by Christophe Jouffrais, Julie Mulet and Bernard Oriola of the ELIPSE team – ICI department of IRIT, the DERi device, for interactive relief drawing, makes it possible to render documents in relief interactive. This work allows visually impaired people to access graphic representations through tactile exploration. The device is composed of an editor and a reader, which allow to create documents in relief on a computer and to explore them on a tablet. The fields of application are multiple: they concern educational programs, reading, games, orientation tables, interactive museum guides and more globally everything that is related to pedagogy. DERi is the result of a collaboration between IRIT and IJA, the Institute for Young Blind People. This collaboration was the subject of an agreement signed in 2012 between the tutelles of the laboratory and the IJA, which led to the creation of the joint laboratory Cherchons Pour Voir of which Christophe Jouffrais is the director. For eight years, the institutes have been working together to adapt printed sheets in relief, so that visually impaired people can “see” these drawings by touch. The objective is simple, and consists in allowing the users of the device to decipher the meaning of the drawings without having to ask for external help. The goal is also to democratize this digital innovation among professionals of the visually impaired.