An interface to virtual environments for people who are blind using Wii technology - mental models and navigation

Accessible games, both for serious and for entertainment purposes, would allow inclusion and participation for those with disabilities. Research into the development of accessible games, and accessible virtual environments, is discussed. Research into accessible Virtual Environments has demonstrated great potential for allowing people who are blind to explore new spaces, reducing their reliance on guides, and aiding development of more efficient spatial maps and strategies. Importantly, Lahav and Mioduser (2005, 2008) have demonstrated that, when exploring virtual spaces, people who are blind use more and different strategies than when exploring real physical spaces, and develop relatively accurate spatial representations of them. The present paper describes the design, development and evaluation of a system in which a virtual environment may be explored by people who are blind using Nintendo Wii devices, with auditory and haptic feedback. The nature of the various types of feedback is considered, with the aim of creating an intuitive and usable system. Using Wii technology has many advantages, not least of which are that it is mainstream, readily available and cheap. The potential of the system for exploration and navigation is demonstrated. Results strongly support the possibilities of the system for facilitating and supporting the construction of cognitive maps and spatial strategies. Intelligent support is discussed. Systems such as the present one will facilitate the development of accessible games, and thus enable Universal Design and accessible interactive technology to become more accepted and widespread

Action video game play and transfer of navigation and spatial cognition skills in adolescents who are blind

For individuals who are blind, navigating independently in an unfamiliar environment represents a considerable challenge. Inspired by the rising popularity of video games, we have developed a novel approach to train navigation and spatial cognition skills in adolescents who are blind. Audio-based Environment Simulator (AbES) is a software application that allows for the virtual exploration of an existing building set in an action video game metaphor. Using this ludic-based approach to learning, we investigated the ability and efficacy of adolescents with early onset blindness to acquire spatial information gained from the exploration of a target virtual indoor environment. Following game play, participants were assessed on their ability to transfer and mentally manipulate acquired spatial information on a set of navigation tasks carried out in the real environment. Success in transfer of navigation skill performance was markedly high suggesting that interacting with AbES leads to the generation of an accurate spatial mental representation. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between success in game play and navigation task performance. The role of virtual environments and gaming in the development of mental spatial representations is also discussed. We conclude that this game based learning approach can facilitate the transfer of spatial knowledge and further, can be used by individuals who are blind for the purposes of navigation in real-world environments

Virtual environments for the transfer of navigation skills in the blind: a comparison of directed instruction vs. video game based learning approaches

For profoundly blind individuals, navigating in an unfamiliar building can represent a significant challenge. We investigated the use of an audio-based, virtual environment called Audio-based Environment Simulator (AbES) that can be explored for the purposes of learning the layout of an unfamiliar, complex indoor environment. Furthermore, we compared two modes of interaction with AbES. In one group, blind participants implicitly learned the layout of a target environment while playing an exploratory, goal-directed video game. By comparison, a second group was explicitly taught the same layout following a standard route and instructions provided by a sighted facilitator. As a control, a third group interacted with AbES while playing an exploratory, goal-directed video game however, the explored environment did not correspond to the target layout. Following interaction with AbES, a series of route navigation tasks were carried out in the virtual and physical building represented in the training environment to assess the transfer of acquired spatial information. We found that participants from both modes of interaction were able to transfer the spatial knowledge gained as indexed by their successful route navigation performance. This transfer was not apparent in the control participants. Most notably, the game-based learning strategy was also associated with enhanced performance when participants were required to find alternate routes and short cuts within the target building suggesting that a ludic-based training approach may provide for a more flexible mental representation of the environment. Furthermore, outcome comparisons between early and late blind individuals suggested that greater prior visual experience did not have a significant effect on overall navigation performance following training. Finally, performance did not appear to be associated with other factors of interest such as age, gender, and verbal memory recall. We conclude that the highly interactive and immersive exploration of the virtual environment greatly engages a blind user to develop skills akin to positive near transfer of learning. Learning through a game play strategy appears to confer certain behavioral advantages with respect to how spatial information is acquired and ultimately manipulated for navigation

TACTOPI: a playful approach to promote computational thinking to visually impaired children

Tese de mestrado em Informática, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 2021The use of playful activities is common in introductory programming settings. Visually, these activities tend to be stimulating enough. However, these are not accessible for visually impaired children. This work presents TACTOPI - a system that consists of a tangible environment that provides navigation skills training and enriches sensorial experiences using sound, visual and tactile elements; It allows the learning of introductory concepts of computational thinking embedded in playful activities with storytelling that promote environmental education for children with visual impairments from 4 to 7 years old. The map is modular, customizable and has a docking system to place the elements allowing a fun tactile interaction. Another essential element is the 3D printed helm containing a joystick and buttons for the child to control and pre-program the instructions to be played by the robot. A study was carried out using a qualitative questionnaire to evaluate the system. Suggestions were collected from respondents experienced with blind children about the suitability, relevance and accessibility of this system for these children. From the results, it is possible to conclude that this is a tool that, despite some limitations, is efficient to introduce computational thinking; interactive elements that support activities in other disciplines and contexts; a tool that ensures accessibility and supports task training for the development of blind children

Teaching the Blind to Find Their Way by Playing Video Games

Computer based video games are receiving great interest as a means to learn and acquire new skills. As a novel approach to teaching navigation skills in the blind, we have developed Audio-based Environment Simulator (AbES); a virtual reality environment set within the context of a video game metaphor. Despite the fact that participants were naïve to the overall purpose of the software, we found that early blind users were able to acquire relevant information regarding the spatial layout of a previously unfamiliar building using audio based cues alone. This was confirmed by a series of behavioral performance tests designed to assess the transfer of acquired spatial information to a large-scale, real-world indoor navigation task. Furthermore, learning the spatial layout through a goal directed gaming strategy allowed for the mental manipulation of spatial information as evidenced by enhanced navigation performance when compared to an explicit route learning strategy. We conclude that the immersive and highly interactive nature of the software greatly engages the blind user to actively explore the virtual environment. This in turn generates an accurate sense of a large-scale three-dimensional space and facilitates the learning and transfer of navigation skills to the physical world

Computer Entertainment Technologies for the Visually Impaired: An Overview

Over the last years, works related to accessible technologies have increased both in number and in quality. This work presents a series of articles which explore different trends in the field of accessible video games for the blind or visually impaired. Reviewed articles are distributed in four categories covering the following subjects: (1) video game design and architecture, (2) video game adaptations, (3) accessible games as learning tools or treatments and (4) navigation and interaction in virtual environments. Current trends in accessible game design are also analysed, and data is presented regarding keyword use and thematic evolution over time. As a conclusion, a relative stagnation in the field of human-computer interaction for the blind is detected. However, as the video game industry is becoming increasingly interested in accessibility, new research opportunities are starting to appear

CLUE: A Usability Evaluation Checklist for Multimodal Video Game Field Studies with Children Who Are Blind

Multimodal video games can enhance the cognitive skills of children who are blind by allowing interaction with scenarios that would be unfeasible in their everyday life. To assist the identification of relevant interface and interaction issues when children who are blind are playing multimodal video games, we propose a Checklist for Usability Evaluation of Multimodal Games for Children who are Blind (CLUE). CLUE was designed to assist researchers and practitioners in usability evaluation field studies, addressing multiple aspects of gameplay and multimodality, including audio, graphics, and haptics. Overall, initial evidence indicates that the use of CLUE during user observation helps to raise a greater number of relevant usability issues than other methods, such as interview and questionnaire. CLUE makes the analysis of recorded user interactions a less time- and effort-consuming process by guiding the identification of interaction patterns and usability issues

Towards Understanding and Developing Virtual Environments to Increase Accessibilities for People with Visual Impairments

The primary goal of this research is to investigate the possibilities of utilizing audio feedback to support effective Human-Computer Interaction Virtual Environments (VEs) without visual feedback for people with Visual Impairments. Efforts have been made to apply virtual reality (VR) technology for training and educational applications for diverse population groups, such as children and stroke patients. Those applications had already shown effects of increasing motivations, providing safer training environments and more training opportunities. However, they are all based on visual feedback. With the head related transfer functions (HRTFs), it is possible to design and develop considerably safer, but diversified training environments that might greatly benefit individuals with VI. In order to explore this, I ran three studies sequentially: 1) if/how users could navigate themselves with different types of 3D auditory feedback in the same VE; 2) if users could recognize the distance and direction of a virtual sound source in the virtual environment (VE) effectively; 3) if users could recognize the positions and distinguish the moving directions of 3D sound sources in the VE between the participants with and without VI. The results showed some possibilities of designing effective Human-Computer Interaction methods and some understandings of how the participants with VI experienced the scenarios differently than the participants without VI. Therefore, this research contributed new knowledge on how a visually impaired person interacts with computer interfaces, which can be used to derive guidelines for the design of effective VEs for rehabilitation and exercise

Navigation Instruction Validation Tool and Indoor Wayfinding Training System for People with Disabilities

According to World Health Survey, there are 785 million (15.6%) people in the world that live with a disability. It is a well-known fact that lack of access to public transportation is a barrier for people with disabilities in seeking work or accessing health care. In this research, we seek to increase access to public transportation by introducing a virtual pre-travel training system that enables people with disabilities to get familiar with a public transportation venue prior to arriving at the venue. Using this system, users establish a mental map of the target environment prior to their arrival to the physical space, increasing their confidence and therefore increasing their chances of using public transportation. First, we have to guarantee that all navigation instructions sent to our training system are correct. Since the number of navigation instruction increases dramatically, instruction validation becomes a challenge. We propose a video game based validation tool which includes a game scene that represents in 2D the physical environment and uses a game avatar to verify the navigation instructions automatically in the game scene. The avatar traverses the virtual space following the corresponding navigation instructions. Only in case that it successfully reaches the planned destination, the current navigation instruction can be considered as correct. Then, we introduce a virtual reality based pre-travel wayfinding training system to assist people with disabilities to get familiar with a venue prior to their arrival at the physical space, which provides two modes: 1) Self-Guided mode in which the path between a source and a destination is shown to the user from third person perspective, and 2) Exploration mode in which the user explores and interacts with the environment. In the end, we have implemented visual analytics tools that track and evaluate trainees’ performance and help us optimize the game. These tools identify the difficulties faced by the trainees as well as obtain overall statistics on the trainees’ behavior in the indoor environment, helping us understand how to modify the system and adjust it to different classes of disabilities

A survey of haptics in serious gaming

Serious gaming often requires high level of realism for training and learning purposes. Haptic technology has been proved to be useful in many applications with an additional perception modality complementary to the audio and the vision. It provides novel user experience to enhance the immersion of virtual reality with a physical control-layer. This survey focuses on the haptic technology and its applications in serious gaming. Several categories of related applications are listed and discussed in details, primarily on haptics acts as cognitive aux and main component in serious games design. We categorize haptic devices into tactile, force feedback and hybrid ones to suit different haptic interfaces, followed by description of common haptic gadgets in gaming. Haptic modeling methods, in particular, available SDKs or libraries either for commercial or academic usage, are summarized. We also analyze the existing research difficulties and technology bottleneck with haptics and foresee the future research directions