 |
VI Fit
Lack of physical activity is a serious health concern for users who are visually impaired (VI). Exergames use exertion-based interfaces to promote physical activity and gross motor skill development and which have the potential to change sedentary lifestyles and improve associated health problems such as obesity.
The VI Fit project seeks to explore how users with VI can play exergames. A preliminary result is VI Tennis; a tennis based exergame that explores the use of vibrotactile and audio feedback as compensatory stimuli using a motion sensing controller.
|
 |
Navatar
This project seeks to explore and exploit the power of mixed reality environments to implement a novel navigation system for users with visual impairments. The conjecture is that sufficiently accurate localization and efficient navigation can be achieved by exploiting the characteristics of indoor environments, taking advantage of the unique sensing and navigation abilities of visually impaired and the use of state-of-the-art methodologies in artificial intelligence and robotics.
|
 |
TextSL
Virtual worlds offer rich, 3D environments for social interaction. As virtual worlds are entirely visual and lack any textual representation they are not accessible to users who are visually impaired. This project investigates how to make virtual worlds accessible and resulted in TextSL; a command based virtual world interface that allows users with vision impairments to access Second Life using a screen reader. More on virtual world accessibility.
|
 |
One Switch Gaming
A switch is an assistive input device that replaces the use of a mouse, keyboard, controller or joystick which severely motor impaired users may find difficult to use. Switches can be used to play games but typically the interaction mechanisms of popular games require a larger amount of input than what can be provided through switch input. This project investigates for a number of popular game genres how to make them switch accessible. More on one switch games.
|
Past Projects |
 |
Blind Hero
Guitar Hero is a popular music game in which players simulate the playing of rock music through a guitar-shaped controller. As this game relies upon being able to perceive visual stimuli, users who are visually impaired are excluded from playing this game. The dominance of music makes it difficult to provide alternative audio outpu therefore a haptic glove was developed that is able to provide vibrotactile feedback through little pager engines attached at each finger. Whenever the player's finger starts buzzing the corresponding button on the guitar controller needs to be pressed. More on guitar hero for visually impaired.
|