Improving the Audio Game-Playing Performances of People with Visual Impairments Through Multimodal Training

As the number of people with visual impairments (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) is continuously increasing, rehabilitation and engineering researchers have identified the need to design sensorysubstitution devices that would offer assistance and guidance to these people for performing navigational tasks. Auditory and haptic cues have been shown to be an effective approach towards creating a rich spatial representation of the environment, so they are considered for inclusion in the development of assistive tools that would enable people with visual impairments to acquire knowledge of the surrounding space in a way close to the visually based perception of sighted individuals. However, achieving efficiency through a sensory substitution device requires extensive training for visually impaired users to learn how to process the artificial auditory cues and convert them into spatial information. Methods: Considering all the potential advantages gamebased learning can provide, we propose a new method for training sound localization and virtual navigational skills of visually impaired people in a 3D audio game with hierarchical levels of difficulty. The training procedure is focused on a multimodal (auditory and haptic) learning approach in which the subjects have been asked to listen to 3D sounds while simultaneously perceiving a series of vibrations on a haptic headband that corresponds to the direction of the sound source in space. Results: The results we obtained in a sound-localization experiment with 10 visually impaired people showed that the proposed training strategy resulted in significant improvements in auditory performance and navigation skills of the subjects, thus ensuring behavioral gains in the spatial perception of the environment.Sound of Vision, Horizon 2020 nr. 643636Peer Reviewe

Understanding everyday experiences of reminiscence for people living with blindness: Practices, tensions and probing new design possibilities

There is growing attention in the HCI community on how technology could be designed to support experiences of reminiscence on past life experiences. Yet, this research has largely overlooked people living with blindness. I present a study that aims to understand everyday experiences of reminiscence for people living with blindness. I conducted a qualitative study with 9 participants living with blindness to understand their personal routines, wishes and desires, and challenges and tensions regarding the experience of reminiscence. Findings are interpreted to discuss new possibilities that offer starting points for future design initiatives and openings for collaboration aimed at creating technology to better support the practices of capturing, sharing, and reflecting on significant memories of the past

Transdiegetic Sound and auditory immersion in an asymmetrical cooperative game

This research is looking to determine how sound interaction, in particular transdiegetic sound, as a core mechanic affects player immersion in an asymmetrical cooperative game. Sound design is crucial for increasing player immersion within single player game experiences, but the issues arises in a multiplayer context where communicating with other players can break this in-game immersion There is rich potential of exploring the game design possibilities of separating the sensory modalities between two players and exploring how the restricted information is conveyed and consequently how this affects player immersion. This research expands upon this by examining the interplay between four game design patterns; transdiegetic sound, player communication, asymmetrical gameplay and immersive experiences. This project developed a game which requires one player to wear a pair of headphones and be prevented from viewing the game screen. The other player is able to see the game screen and have the controls to move around the game environment but is not able to hear audio cues from within the virtual space; this only being audible to the player wearing the headphones. The research suggests that the novel design approach highlights how current methods of measuring player immersion such as questionnaires may not always be appropriate due to the assumptions they contain within the questions they ask. The results also suggests that whilst the relationship between transdiegetic sound and asymmetrical gameplay may not appear to be significant, there is an interplay between these mechanics that influences the immersive experience for the player. This project proposes that future work considers this interplay and avoids attempting to analyse how a design pattern determines player immersion in isolation but that it considers how it behaves it relation to the other design choices within the game

Virtual envonments and spatial ability to people with special educational needs (SEN)/disabilities

Σημείωση: διατίθεται συμπληρωματικό υλικό σε ξεχωριστό αρχείο