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

Sistema computacional de avaliação de síntese biaural para sinais sonoros de fala com head tracker

Monografia (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade UnB Gama, Curso de Engenharia Eletrônica, 2014.A utilização de áudio espacializado trás benefícios de inteligibilidade e identificação de falante em sistemas de telecomunicação. A auralização é o processo que espacializa áudio em 3D e é realizada através da síntese biaural, que consiste na convolução de uma fonte sonora com um par de HRTFs, gerando áudio biaural. O presente trabalho propõe o desenvolvimento de um sistema de avaliação de áudio biaural, sintetizado com fontes sonoras de fala e com bancos de HRTFs. Aplicações de síntese biaural foram implementadas, considerando-se apenas o plano horizontal. Um sistema de head tracking utilizando uma IMU também foi implementado. Foram desenvolvidas rotinas de testes de localização, para cenários com uma ou duas fontes sonoras, e com ou sem o uso de head tracker. Os testes de localização foram realizados com quatro sujeitos. Os resultados obtidos indicam que a síntese biaural confere aos sinais sonoros informações de diretividade suficientes para localização espacial no plano horizontal. Também indicam que a utilização do sistema de head tracking pode trazer benefícios para a localização de fontes sonoras em áudio biaural.Spatialized audio brings benefits to intelligibility and to source localization in communication systems. Auralization is the process which spatializes audio in 3D and it is done by binaural synthesis, where a sound source is convolved with a pair of HRTFs to generate binaural audio. The present work proposes and develops a binaural audio evaluation system, where audio is synthesized with speech sound sources and with HRTF database. Binaural synthesis applications were implemented, considering only horizontal plane. A head tracking system using an IMU was also implemented. Localization tests routines for scenarios with one or two sound sources, and with our without use of head tracker, were developed. Tests were performed with four subjects. The results obtained indicate that binaural synthesis gives sufficient directional information to sound source localization in the horizontal plane. Results also indicate that use of a head tracking system can benefit binaural sound source localization

The creation of a binaural spatialization tool

The main focus of the research presented within this thesis is, as the title suggests, binaural spatialization. Binaural technology and, especially, the binaural recording technique are not particu-larly recent. Nevertheless, the interest in this technology has lately become substantial due to the increase in the calculation power of personal computers, which started to allow the complete and accurate real-time simulation of three-dimensional sound-fields over headphones. The goals of this body of research have been determined in order to provide elements of novelty and of contribution to the state of the art in the field of binaural spatialization. A brief summary of these is found in the following list: • The development and implementation of a binaural spatialization technique with Distance Simulation, based on the individual simulation of the distance cues and Binaural Reverb, in turn based on the weighted mix between the signals convolved with the different HRIR and BRIR sets; • The development and implementation of a characterization process for modifying a BRIR set in order to simulate different environments with different characteristics in terms of frequency response and reverb time; • The creation of a real-time and offline binaural spatialization application, imple-menting the techniques cited in the previous points, and including a set of multichannel(and Ambisonics)-to-binaural conversion tools. • The performance of a perceptual evaluation stage to verify the effectiveness, realism, and quality of the techniques developed, and • The application and use of the developed tools within both scientific and artistic “case studies”. In the following chapters, sections, and subsections, the research performed between January 2006 and March 2010 will be described, outlining the different stages before, during, and after the development of the software platform, analysing the results of the perceptual evaluations and drawing conclusions that could, in the future, be considered the starting point for new and innovative research projects

Proceedings of the 19th Sound and Music Computing Conference

Proceedings of the 19th Sound and Music Computing Conference - June 5-12, 2022 - Saint-Étienne (France). https://smc22.grame.f

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Proceedings of the 2nd European conference on disability, virtual reality and associated technologies (ECDVRAT 1998)

The proceedings of the conferenc