Take a look at the new version of this page: [ beta version ]. Tell us what you think.

ABSTRACT

This paper reports Rock Vibe, a modification performed on Rock Band® computer game to represent visual information using haptic and audio feedback to allow people with no or limited vision to enjoy the game. We modified the drumming activity of Rock Band® by providing users with vibrations on upper and lower arms to represent the drumhead cues and on ankle to represent the kick drum cue. Auditory information is used to provide feedback on correct and timely hit (with various drumming sounds) or errors (with a click sound). Computer's standard speech synthesizer is used to read the menu, song title, instruction and score. A series of evaluations with people with various levels of visual impairment were performed at different stages of the system development. We found that users were able to master the system almost immediately, with some users making no error halfway through the first song.

REFERENCES

• 1: Andresen, G. Playing by ear: Using audio to create blind-accessible games. CMP Media LLC, 2001, pp. 28--32. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3493/playing_by_ear_using_audio_to_.php
• 2: Archambault, D., Burger, D., Sablé, S. The TIM Project: Tactile Interactive Multimedia computer games for blind and visually impaired children. Proceedings of the AAATE'01 Conference "Assistive technology - Added value to the quality of life". Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2001, pp 359--363.
• 3: Grammenos, D., Savidis, A., Stephanidis, C. UA-Chess: A Universally Accessible Board Game.
• 4: Griffiths, M.D., Davies, M.N.O.&Chappell, D. (2003). Breaking the stereotype: The case of online gaming. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 6, 81--91.
• 5: Johnson, C. Rumble Pak Titles on the Rise. GameSpot, 1997. http://www.gamespot.com/news/2466717.html.
• 6: Mansur, D.L., Blattner, M.M., Joy, K.I. Sound Graphs: A Numerical Data Analysis Method for the Blind. Journal of Medical Systems, 9, 3, 1985, 163--174.
• 7: McCrindle , R.J. and Symons, D. Audio space invaders. Proc. 3rd International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality&Associated Technology (ICDVRAT'00), Alghero, Italy 2000, pp. 59--65.
• 8: Shari Trewin , Vicki L. Hanson , Mark R. Laff , Anna Cavender, PowerUp: an accessible virtual world, Proceedings of the 10th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, October 13-15, 2008, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada [doi>10.1145/1414471.1414504]
• 9: Wood, J., Magennis, M., Francisca, E., Arias, C., Graupp, H., Gutierrez, T.&Bergamasco, M., 2003. The design and evaluation of a computer game for the blind in the GRAB haptic audio virtual environment. Proceeding of EuroHaptics 2003, July 6-9. Dublin, Ireland, pp. 147--158.
• 10: Yee, N. WoW Basic Demographics. The Daedalus Project. http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001365.php
• 11: Bei Yuan , Eelke Folmer, Blind hero: enabling guitar hero for the visually impaired, Proceedings of the 10th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, October 13-15, 2008, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada [doi>10.1145/1414471.1414503]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Auditory (non-speech) feedback

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Haptic I/O

General Terms:
Experimentation, Human Factors, Performance, Verification

Keywords:
blindness, games, haptic, visual impairment