Abstract
Blind players have many difficulties to access video games since most of them rely on impressive graphics and immersive visual experiences. To overcome this limitation, we propose a device designed for visually impaired people to interact with virtual scenes of video games. The device has been designed considering usability, economic cost, and adaptability as main features. To ensure usability, we considered the white cane paradigm since this is the most used device by the blind community. Our device supports left to right movements and collision detection as well as actions to manipulate scene objects such as drag and drop. To enhance realism, it also integrates a library with sounds of different materials to reproduce object collision. To reduce the economic cost, we used Arduino as the basis of our development. Finally, to ensure adaptability, we created an application programming interface that supports the connection with different games engines and different scenarios. To test the acceptance of the device 12 blind participants were considered (6 males and 6 females). In addition, we created three mini-games in Unity3D that require navigation and walking as principal actions. After playing, participants filled a questionnaire related to usability and suitability to interact with games, among others. They scored well in all features without distinction among player gender and being blind from birth. The relationship between device responsiveness and user interaction has been considered satisfactory. Despite our small test sample, our main goal has been accomplished, the proposed device prototype seems to be useful to visually impaired people.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abdel-Wahab AG, El-Masry AAA (2011) Mobile information communication technologies adoption in developing countries: effects and implications. Hershey, IGI Global
Archambault D (2004) The TIM project: overview of results. In: Proc. Computers helping people with special needs, pp 248–256
Archambault D, Ossmann R, Gaudy T, Miesenberger K Computer games and visually impaired people (https://cedric.cnam.fr/fichiers/RC1204.pdf)
Arduino What is Arduino. Available online: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Introduction. Accessed 22 May 2017
Bach-y-Rita P, Collins CC, Saunders FA, White B, Scadden L (1969) Vision substitution by tactile image projection. Nature 221:963–964
Balan O, Moldoveanu A, Moldoveanu F (2015) Navigational audio games: an effective approach toward improving spatial contextual learning for blind people. Int J Disabil Hum Dev 14(2):109–118
Brewster SA (1998) Using non-speech sounds to provide navigation cues. ACM Trans Comput-Human Interact 5:224–259
Card SK, Robertson GG, Mackinlay JD (1991) The information visualizer: an information workspace. In: Proc. ACM CHI’91 Conf, 181–188
Csapó G, Nagy H, Stockman T (2015) A survey of assistive technologies and applications for blind users on mobile platforms: a review and foundation for research. J Multimodal User Interf 9(4):275–286
Cui J, Liu Y, Xu Y, Zhao H, Zha H (2013) Tracking generic human motion via fusion of low- and high-dimensional approaches. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern Syst 43(4):996–1002
Cuturi LF, Aggius-Vella E, Campus C, Parmiggiani A, Goria M (2016) From science to technology: orientation and mobility in blind children and adults. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 71:240–251
Dabrowski J, Munson EV (2011) 40 Years of searching for the best computer system response time. Interact Comput 23:555–564
Damaschini R, Legras R, Leroux R, Farcy R (2005) Electronic travel aid for blind people. Assistive Technol Virtual Realit 16(1):251–255
Farcy R, Leroux R, Damaschini R, Legras R, Bellik Y, Jacquet C, Pardo P (2003) Laser telemetry to improve the mobility of blind people: report of the 6 month training course. In: Proc. 1st International conference on smart homes and health telematics12, pp 113–115
Friberg J, Gärdenfors D (2004) Audio games: new perspectives on game audio. In: Proc. Int. ACM conference on advances in computer entertainment technology, pp 148–154
Ghali NI, Soluiman O, El-Bendary N, Nassef TM, Ahmed SA, Elbarawy YM, Hassanien AE (2012) Virtual reality technology for blind and visual impaired people: reviews and recent advances. In: Gulrez T, Hassanien A E (eds) Advances in robotics and virtual reality, ISRL 26, pp 363–385
Gori M, Cappagli G, Tonelli A, Baud-Bovy G, Finocchietti S (2016) Devices for visually impaired people: High technological devices with low user acceptance and no adaptability for children. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 69:79–88
Gutschmidt R, Schiewe M, Zinke F, Jürgensen H (2010) Haptic emulation of games: haptic Sudoku for the blind. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on pervasive technologies related to assistive environments. Article 2. ACM
Hakobyan L, Lumsden J, OSullivan D, Bartlett H (2013) Mobile assistive technologies for the visually impaired. Surv Opthalmol 58(6):513–528
Haptics rendering and applications Edited by Dr. Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, 978-953- 307-897-7 (2012)
Heuten W, Henze N, Boll S, Klante P (2007) Auditorypong, playing pong in the dark. In: Audio mostly- proc. conference on interaction with sound
Hossain E, Khan R, Muhida R, Ali A (2011) State of the art review on walking support system for visually impaired people. Int J Biomechatron Biomed Robot 1(4):232–251
Kajimoto H, Inami M, Kawakami N, Tachi S (2003) Smart Touch-augmentation of skin sensation with electro cutaneous display, haptic interfaces for virtual environment and teleoperator systems. HAPTICS 2003. In: Proc. Symposium on IEEE, pp 40–46
Kay L (2000) Auditory perception of objects by blind persons, using a bioacoustic high resolution air sonar. J Acoust Soc Am 107:3266–3275
Kim J, Ricaurte J (2011) TapBeats: accessible and mobile casual gaming. In: Proc. ACM Conference on computers and accessibility. ACM, pp 285–286
Kim S, Lee K, Nam T (2016) Sonic-badminton: audio-augmented badminton game for blind people. In: Proc. Conference on human factors in computing systems. ACM, pp 1922–1929
Lacey G, Dawson-Howe KM, Vernon D (1995) Personal autonomous mobility aid for the frail and elderly blind (Technical Report, No. TCD-CS-95-18). Trinity College, Dublin
Leonard R (2002) Statistics on vision impairment: a resource manual, 5th edn. Arlene Gordon Research Institute of Lighthouse International, New York
Liu Y, Zhang X, Cui J (2010) Visual analysis of child-adult interactive behaviors in video sequences. Int Conf Virt Syst Multimed
Liu Y, Cui J, Zhao H, Zha H (2012) Fusion of low-and high-dimensional approaches by trackers sampling for generic human motion tracking. Int Conf Pattern Recogn 898–901
Liu Y, Nie L, Han L, Zhang L, Rosenblum DS (2015) Action2Activity: recognizing complex activities from sensor data. In: Yang Q, Wooldridge M (eds) Proc. int. conference on artificial intelligence. AAAI Press, pp 1617–1623
Liu L, Cheng L, Liu Y, Jia Y, Rosenblum DS (2016) Recognizing complex activities by a probabilistic interval-based model. Int Conf Artific Intell, 1266–1272
Liu Y, Zhang L, Nie L, Yan Y, Rosenblum DS (2016) tFortune teller: predicting your career path. Int Conf Artif Intell, 201–207
Liu Y, Nie L, Liu L, Rosenblum D S (2016) From action to activity: sensor-based activity recognition. Neurocomputing 181(2016):108–115
Lu Y, Wei Y, Liu L, Zhong J, Sun L, Liu Y (2017) Towards unsupervised physical activity recognition using smartphone accelerometers. Multimed Tools 76(8):10701–10719
Maidenbaum S, Levy-Tzedek S, Chebat D, NamerFurstenberg R, Amedi A (2014) The effect of expanded sensory range via the eyecane sensory substitution device on the characteristics of visionless virtual navigation,MSR. ISSN 2213–4794
Manduchi R, Coughlan JM (2012) Computer vision without sight. Commun ACM 55(1):96–104
Manduchi R, Kurniawan S (2011) Mobility-related accidents experienced by people with visual impairment. Res Pract Vis Impairment Blindness 4(2):44–54
Manduchi R, Kurniawan S (2012) Assistive technology for blindness and low vision. CRC Press, ISBN 9781439871539
Magnusson C, Rassmus-Grhn K, Sjstrm C, Danielsson H (2002) Navigation and recognition in complex haptic virtual environments? Reports from an extensive study with blind users? In: Proc. Eurohaptics 2002. Edinburgh
Mau S, Melchior NA, Makatchev M, Steinfeld A (2008) BlindAid: an electronic travel aid for the blind (Technical Report, No. CMU-RI-TR-07-39). The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
Miller RB (1968) Response time in man-computer conversational transactions. Proc AFIPS Fall Joint Comput Conf 33:267–277
Miller D, Parecki A, Douglas S (2007) Finger dance: a sound game for blind people. In: Proc. Int. ACM conference on computers and accessibility, pp 253–254
Milne L, Bennett C, Ladner R, Azenkot S (2014) Brailleplay: educational smartphone games for blind children. In: Proc. Int. conference on computers and accessibility, pp 137–144
Morelli T, Foley J, Columna L, Lieberman L, Folmer E (2010) VI-Tennis a vibrotactile / audio exergame for players who are visually impaired categories and subject descriptors. In: Proc. Int. ACM conference on the foundations of digital games, pp 147–154
Morelli T, Foley J, Folmer E (2010) Vi-bowling: a tactile spatial exergame for individuals with visual impairments. In: Proc. International conference on computers and accessibility, pp 179–186
Nagarajan R, Yaacob S, Sainarayanan G (2003) Role of object identification in sonification system for visually impaired. In: IEEE Tencon (IEEE region 10 conference on convergent technologies for the AsiaPacific). Bangalore, pp 15–17
Neilson J (1993) Usability engineering
Nikolakis G, Tzovaras D, Moustakidis S, Strintzis M (2004) Cybergrasp and phantom integration: Enhanced haptic access for visually impaired users. Conf Speech Comput 20–22
Papa Sangre (2013) http://www.papasangre.com/
Rempel J (2012) Glasses that alert travelers to objects through vibration? An evaluation of iGlasses by RNIB and AmbuTech. AFB Access World Mag 13:9
Revuelta P, Ruiz B, Sánchez JM, Bruce N (2014) Scenes and images into sounds: a taxonomy of image sonification methods for mobility applications. J Audio Eng Soc 62(3):161–171
Rodriguez A, Garcia RJ, Garcia JM, Magdics M, Sbert M (2013) Implementation of a videogame: legends of girona actas del primer simposio espaol de entretenimiento digital. In: Gonzlez P A, Gmez, M A (eds) pp 96–107
Rodriguez-Sancheza MC, Moreno-Alvareza MA, Martin E, Borromeoa S, Hernandez-Tamamesa JA (2014) Accessible smartphones for blind users: a case study for a way finding system. Expert Syst Appl 41(16):7210–7222
Roentgen UR, Gelderblom GJ, Soede M, de Witte L (2008) Inventory of electronic mobility aids for persons with visual impairments: a literature review. J Vis Impairment Blindness 102(11):702– 724
Sakhardande J, Pattanayak P, Bhowmick M (1163) Arduino based mobility caneinternational. J Sci Eng Res 4:4
Sánchez J, Sáenz M, Ripoll M (2009) Usability of a multimodal videogame to improve navigation skills for blind children. In: Proc. ACM Computers and accessibility, pp 35–42
Sánchez J, Sáenz J, Garrido JM (2010) Usability of a multimodal video game to improve navigation skills for blind children. TACCESS 3:2010
Sánchez J, Campos M, Espinoza M, Merabet LB (2014) Audio haptic video gaming for developing way finding skills in learners who are blind. In: Proc. International conference on intelligent user interfaces. ACM, pp 199–208
Savidis A, Stamou A, Stephanidis C (2007) An accessible multimodal pong game space. Universal Access Ambient Intell Environ 405–418
Shoval S, Borenstein J, Koren Y (1998) The Navbelt-A computerized travel aid for the blind based on mobile robotics technology. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 45:1376–1386
Sohl-Dickstein J, Teng S, Gaub BM, Rodgers CC, Li C, DeWeese MR, Harper NS (2015) A device for human ultrasonic echolocation. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 62:1526–1534
Sudhanthiradevi M, Suganya Devi M, Roshini R, Sathya T (2016) Arduino based walking stick for visually impaired. Int J Adv Res Trends Eng Technol 5:4
Sung-Yeon K, Kwangsu C (2013) Usability and design guidelines of smart canes for users with visual impairments. Int J Des 7:1
Torres-Gil MA, Casanova-Gonzalez O, Gonzalez-Mora JL (2010) Applications of virtual reality for visually impaired people. WSEAS Trans Comput 2(9):184–193
Tzovaras D, Moustakas K, Nikolakis G, Strinzis M (2009) Interactive mixed reality white cane simulation for the training of the blind and the visually impaired. Person Ubiq Comput 13(1):51–58
Velzquez R (2010) Wearable assistive devices for the blind. Wearable and autonomous biomedical devices and systems for smart environment. Lect Notes Electr Eng 75:331–349
Vorderer P, Bryant J (2006) Playing video games-motives, responses and consequences, Mahwab, NJ:LEA, ISBN: 978-0805853223
Wood J, Magennis M, Cano Arias EF, Gutierrez T, Graupp H, Bergamasco M (2003) The design and evaluation of a computer game for the blind in the GRAB haptic audio virtual environment eurohaptics 2003. Dublin
www.theesa.com/. Accessed on May 2017
Yuan B, Folmer E (2008) Blind hero: enabling guitar hero for the visually impaired. In: Proc. International ACM conference on computers and accessibility, pp 169–176
Yuan B, Folmer E, Harris FC (2011) Game accessibility: a survey. Univers Access Inf Soc 10(1):81–100
Zhao S, Yao H, Gao Y, Ji R, Xie W, Jiang X, Chua TS (2016) Predicting personalized emotion perceptions of social images. Proc ACM Multimed Conf 1385–1394
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Catalan Government (Grant No. 2014-SGR-1232) and by the Spanish Government (Grant No. TIN2016-75866-C3-3-R).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rodríguez, A., Boada, I. & Sbert, M. An Arduino-based device for visually impaired people to play videogames. Multimed Tools Appl 77, 19591–19613 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-017-5415-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-017-5415-1