Text-Guided Image-to-Image Translation for Converting RGB Maps to Tactile Images

Tactile graphics provide blind and visually impaired individuals access to visual information through touch, aiding navigation, education, and social interaction. However, manual tactile design is costly, time-intensive, and difficult to scale. This thesis proposes a novel approach to generate tactile maps from RGB maps using text-guided image-to-image translation. By leveraging natural language prompts, the method enables control over map details, such as lakes, rivers, and cities, allowing outputs to be tailored to specific needs. A custom dataset of 1,845 RGB maps was developed, paired with multiple tactile counterparts, each reflecting unique combinations of detail levels for map components. Text prompts were crafted to describe these tactile variations, resulting in 9,800 triplets (RGB map, tactile map, prompt) for training and evaluation. Human evaluations confirmed the model outperforms a baseline model, with 47% of outputs requiring minimal adjustments. This scalable solution streamlines tactile map production while maintaining high quality.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Choubineh, Alireza

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2024 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, distribution to students, research and scholarship. Theses may only be shared by linking to the Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be copied without proper attribution to the author; no part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/2025-16415

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/43558