OFAI presented LEGO Audio & Braille Building Instructions at the Wiener Forschungsfest 2025. In two and a half days approx. 400 visitors built small LEGO models blindfolded, only with the help of the audio instructions. Since the Forschungsfest was targeted to young people offering a wide range of experiences in the world of science, our stand was besieged by children, their parents, and interested adult visitors.
Our project LEGO Audio & Braille Building Instructions was initially targeted to blind and visually impaired LEGO fans, providing them with verbal instructions such they can build their models independently. This not only demands a much higher cognitive load, since one has to conceptualize first which brick is to be searched for and then how to precisely mount it on a given structure without seeing it. But through the lack of eye-hand coordination, significantly higher fine-motoric skills are needed as well. Some comments from visitors corroborate our ideas that the range of applications could actually much broader.
We could observe visitors (mostly kids) that did fantastically well, and others that had a real challenge, but all of them reported that it is indeed much more difficult. They moved on with an experience of the world of the blind, but also with a feeling of success that they were able to build a model without seeing it. We were also quite challenged (on Sunday, there were 6 of us, constantly setting up new builds and monitoring the progress), and we left the Forschungsfest tired, happy, and with rich experiences and insights.
