Development of Navigation Skills Through Audio Haptic Videogaming in Learners Who are Blind (original) (raw)
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Audio haptic videogaming for developing wayfinding skills in learners who are blind
Proceedings of the 19th international conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, 2014
Interactive digital technologies are currently being developed as a novel tool for education and skill development. Audiopolis is an audio and haptic based videogame designed for developing orientation and mobility (O&M) skills in people who are blind. We have evaluated the cognitive impact of videogame play on O&M skills by assessing performance on a series of behavioral tasks carried out in both indoor and outdoor virtual spaces. Our results demonstrate that the use of Audiopolis had a positive impact on the development and use of O&M skills in school-aged learners who are blind. The impact of audio and haptic information on learning is also discussed.
Usability of a Multimodal Video Game to Improve Navigation Skills for Blind Children
2010
This work presents an evaluative study on the usability of a haptic device together with a soundbased video game for the development and use of orientation and mobility (O&M) skills in closed, unfamiliar spaces by blind, school-aged children. A usability evaluation was implemented for a haptic device especially designed for this study (Digital Clock Carpet) and a 3D video game (MOVA3D) in order to determine the degree to which the user accepted the device, and the level of the user's satisfaction regarding her interaction with these products for O&M purposes. In addition, a cognitive evaluation was administered. The results show that both the haptic device and the video game are usable, accepted and considered to be pleasant for use by blind children. The results also show that they are ready to be used for cognitive learning purposes. Results from a cognitive study demonstrated significant gains in tempo-spatial orientation skills of blind children when navigating in unfamiliar spaces.
Enhancing orientation and mobility skills in learners who are blind through video gaming
Proceedings of the 9th ACM Conference on Creativity & Cognition, 2013
In this work we present the results of the cognitive impact evaluation regarding the use of Audiopolis, an audio and/or haptic-based videogame. The software has been designed, developed and evaluated for the purpose of developing orientation and mobility (O&M) skills in blind users. The videogame was evaluated through cognitive tasks performed by a sample of 12 learners. The results demonstrated that the use of Audiopolis had a positive impact on the development and use of O&M skills in school-aged blind learners.
Videogaming for wayfinding skills in children who are blind
Proceedings 9th International Conference Series on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies, ICDVRAT, 2012
There are several problems faced by people who are blind when navigating through unfamiliar spaces, and especially open spaces. One way to mitigate these problems is by getting to know the spaces prior to actual navigation, through the use of virtual environments represented through audio and haptic interfaces. In exploring the possibilities for further improving navigation through such spaces; it was especially interesting to study the option of simulating the real body movement of a learner who is n during his interaction with a virtual environment. To achieve this the design, implementation and impact evaluation of an audio and haptic-based videogame called MovaWii is proposed, in which a real physical space is represented virtually, where learners who are blind interact through their own body movements and use of the Wiimote controllers of the Nintendo Wii console in order to navigate through unknown virtual spaces. The results demonstrated a videogame that allows for the development of orientation and mobility skills in learners who are blind, as it serves as a supporting tool for the construction of a mental map of the virtual space navigated through the integration of its audio and haptic components. In addition, learners could transfer the information obtained from virtual to the real world physical space, through which they were then able to navigate autonomously and efficiently.
An audio game for training navigation skills of blind children
2015 IEEE 2nd VR Workshop on Sonic Interactions for Virtual Environments (SIVE), 2015
Training blind children to use audio-based navigation is a demanding and risky task, as children can walk into objects and hurt themselves. Furthermore, training outdoors is dangerous due to traffic, noise and weather conditions. Having a controlled indoor environment is safer but not always available. To tackle this problem, we developed an audio-based computer game, Legend of Iris (LoI), specifically designed to train navigation skills. The game is a 3D exploration game, which uses the headtracking capabilities of the Oculus Rift to create an immersive experience, and the new sound libraries AstoundSound and Phonon3D, to generate an accurate and realistic soundscape. These libraries use a head-related transfer function, allowing the player to localize the audio source in 3D space. The design of LoI involved selecting sounds that are easily recognizable to provide cues to blind people playing the game. A subset of these cues were incorporated into the game. To verify the effectiveness of the game in developing audio orientation and navigation skills, we performed a preliminary qualitative experiment with blind children in a dedicated school. The results were rather positive, confirming that such a game is indeed a very suitable means for this purpose.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2014
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. Citation: Connors EC, Chrastil ER, Sánchez J and Merabet LB (2014) Virtual environments for the transfer of navigation skills in the blind: a comparison of directed instruction vs. video game based learning approaches. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8:223.
This paper describes the development and evaluation of a computer game for blind and visually impaired people using a new haptic audio virtual environment (HAVE). The GRAB HAVE consists of a new two-finger haptic interface and Haptic Geometric Modeller which enables people to locate and interact with 3D computer-generated objects using their sense of touch and audio feedback. A simple 3D search and adventure game was developed and tested with fifteen blind participants in three countries. The results show that it is possible to create an enjoyable and immersive game using this approach. This offers hope for combating the exclusion of blind and visually impaired people from what is fast becoming one of the favourite leisure activities of the public.
Teaching the Blind to Find Their Way by Playing Video Games
2012
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. Citation: Merabet LB, Connors EC, Halko MA, Sánchez J (2012) Teaching the Blind to Find Their Way by Playing Video Games. PLoS ONE 7(9): e44958.
The Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 2018
This action research study examined the design elements of three VR games that used an HTC VIVE VR helmet, two HTC game controllers, and a VR horse simulator for functionality and transferability to orientation and mobility (O&M) education for visually impaired individuals. The functionality of the VR games was tested with a visually-impaired individual based upon five characteristics that are important to O&M education: perimeter scanning then grid scanning, hearing, touch, smell, and perceptions of body positions. The horse simulator has potential benefits for proprioception and kinesthesia development. The inconsistent haptic feedback requires redesign consideration for inclusion within VR games and systems for O&M education of visually impaired individuals.
International Journal on Disability and Human Development, 2015
For people who suffer from a visual impairment, navigating in an unknown environment represents a considerable challenge. To help them develop spatial orientation and mobility skills, researchers have employed audio-based computer games as a practical, interactive and user-centered learning approach. The highly immersive and attractive nature of audio games enables blind people to create a spatial representation of their environment that can be assigned to aid performing real-life navigation tasks. This paper reviews the most notable navigational audiobased games in terms of their conceptual and technological approach, accessibility and user interaction efficiency.