Where's My Stuff? Design and Evaluation of a Mobile System for Locating Lost Items for the Visually Impaired
Julie A. Kientz, Shwetak N. Patel, Arwa Z. Tyebkhan, Brian Gane, Jennifer Wiley, Gregory D. Abowd · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06) · doi:10.1145/1168987.1169006
Summary
This paper presents FETCH (Finding Everything using Technology that is Convenient and Handy), a mobile system that helps visually impaired people locate lost items around their home using Bluetooth-enabled tags and existing devices like cell phones or laptops. The research was motivated by focus group findings that visually impaired people are highly organised about important items like wallets, keys, and medication, but frequently lose mundane objects — bottles of cleaning products, staplers, coffee cups — that sighted people locate through visual scanning. Existing commercial item-tracking systems were found to be inadequate: they relied on sound-based approaches prone to false positives, required sighted help to set up, lacked mobility, or added to the already numerous devices visually impaired people carry. FETCH's design uses small Bluetooth tags attached to objects, each with a speaker that emits an audible beep activated by the user's phone or laptop. Tags have tactile ridges on the back so users can identify them by touch, and large printed numerals for users with partial vision. The system was implemented in Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) for Nokia Series 60 phones, with a text-only interface designed for screen reader compatibility. Users register objects by speaking their name as a sound file, associate a tag number, and later search for lost objects by selecting them from a list — the system activates the tag's beeping within a 30-metre Bluetooth range.
Key findings
The system was evaluated through a laboratory usability study (4 participants) and a one-month diary study deployment (4 participants — 2 fully blind, 2 partially sighted, ages 22-55). In the lab study, all participants completed all tasks successfully, found the system easy to use, and said they would consider purchasing it at an estimated cost of \. In the diary study, participants lost 1-5 items per two-week phase, with an average frustration level of 4.75 out of 7. In Phase 2 (with FETCH), success rates improved and search times decreased — most users found objects within 1-3 minutes versus hours or days without the system. Average frustration dropped from 4.75 to 1.14. Users primarily tracked 1-3 frequently lost items rather than tagging many objects. One participant (Kim) who used FETCH on her primary phone reported using it 2-3 times daily and found it transformed how she located her water bottle and TV remote. Participants unanimously preferred having FETCH on their existing phone over a separate device. Qualitative interviews revealed strong interest in using the system outside the home — at conferences, airports, restaurants — where losing objects is more urgent because sighted help may not be available. Participants also suggested creative uses like distinguishing their cane among similar ones in group settings.
Relevance
This research demonstrates excellent user-centred design practice for assistive technology, progressing from focus groups through iterative prototyping to real-world deployment. The key design insight — leveraging devices users already carry rather than introducing new dedicated hardware — addresses a genuine pain point: visually impaired people already carry canes, guide dogs, notetakers, phones, and other devices, and adding yet another is unwelcome. The finding that users tracked only 1-3 items rather than many objects is a practical reality that challenges assumptions about how item-tracking systems would be used. The diary study's revelation that the system was most valued for situations outside the home, where sighted assistance is unavailable, reframes the problem from mere convenience to genuine independence. The accessibility challenges encountered with mobile development (limited widget customisation in J2ME, small screen sizes for low-vision users, difficulty of text input) remain relevant considerations for mobile assistive technology development, even as platforms have evolved significantly since 2006.
Tags: visual impairment · assistive technology · object location · Bluetooth · mobile technology · ubiquitous computing · user-centred design · independent living