Abstract
Goalball is one of the most popular sports for visually impaired people worldwide. The aim of goalball is to throw a ball with bells embedded in it to the goal line of the opponents as many times as possible while the defenders try to block the thrown ball with their bodies. Since goalball players cannot rely on visual information, they must perceive the game situation using only their auditory sense. However, it is difficult, especially for beginners, to perceive the direction and distance of the thrown ball. In previous research, we developed and evaluated an application called GoalBaural (Goalball + Aural) that allowed users to improve their recognition of the direction of a thrown ball based on acoustic virtual reality. However, GoalBaural did not provide exercises to help users judge the distance of the ball. In this paper, we develop an improved acoustic virtual reality system that allows users to independently perform comprehensive goalball training without going to the gym. We conducted a questionnaire survey to determine the sounds that players used to perceive the status of a goalball game, and implemented the training application GoalBaural-II. The result of the questionnaire indicated that skilled goalball players tended to rely on sound information to predict the features of a throw by an opponent. Also, the application based on the result can help users more accurately determine the direction and distance of an approaching ball.
M. Watanabe and T. Miura—Both authors contributed equally to this manuscript.
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Acknowledgment
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP18K18625, JP21H05347 and JP21K18485. Special thanks are due to the members of the goalball club at Tsukuba University of Technology.
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Watanabe, M., Miura, T., Matsuo, M., Sakajiri, M., Onishi, J. (2022). GoalBaural-II: An Acoustic Virtual Reality Training Application for Goalball Players to Recognize Various Game Conditions. In: Miesenberger, K., Kouroupetroglou, G., Mavrou, K., Manduchi, R., Covarrubias Rodriguez, M., Penáz, P. (eds) Computers Helping People with Special Needs. ICCHP-AAATE 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13342. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08645-8_10
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