Via: Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) – Development
of an Audio-based Virtual Gaming Environment to Assist with Navigation Skills
in the Blind
Connors,
E. C., Yazzolino, L. A., Sánchez, J., Merabet, L. B. Development of an
Audio-based Virtual Gaming Environment to Assist with Navigation Skills in the
Blind. J. Vis. Exp. (73), e50272, doi:10.3791/50272 (2013)
On March 27th,
JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) published a
new video article by Dr. Lotfi Merabet showing how researchers in the Department of
Ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard Medical School have developed a Serious
Game to help blind individuals improve navigation skills and develop a
cognitive spatial map of unfamiliar buildings and public locations (please find
also Serious Gaming Your Way To Better Vision).
The
technique utilizes computer generated layouts of public buildings and spatial
sensory feedback to synthesize a virtual world that mimics a real world
navigation task. In the game, participants must find jewels and carry them out
of the building, without being intercepted by roaming monsters that steal the
jewels and hide them elsewhere.
Participants
interface with the virtual building by using a keyboard and wearing headphones
that play auditory cues that help spatially orient them to the world around
them. This interaction helps users generate an accurate mental layout of the
mimicked building. Dr. Merabet and his colleagues are also exploring
applications of this technology with other user interfaces, like a Wii Remote
or joystick.
"It
could be a whole new way to help blind people interact with this information
and conceptualize space around them," Merabet added in an interview.
"We
have developed the software called AbES, the Audio-based Environment Simulator that
represents the actual physical environment of the Caroll
Center for the Blind in Newton Massachusetts. The participants will use the
game metaphor to get a sense of the whole building through open discovery,
allowing people to learn room layouts more naturally than if they were just
following directions."
After game
play, participants are then assessed on their ability to navigate within the
target physical building represented in the game. Preliminary results suggest
that early blind users were able to acquire relevant information regarding the
spatial layout of a previously unfamiliar building as indexed by their
performance on a series of navigation tasks. These tasks included path finding
through the virtual and physical building, as well as a series of drop off
tasks.
Neuroscientist Lotfi Merabet has developed a video game designed to
help the blind find their way through a building (Courtesy)
"It
could be a whole new way to help blind people interact with this information
and conceptualize space around them," Merabet added in an interview.
The
technology will invariably be useful for the 285 million blind people
world-wide, 6 million of which live in the United States. It will also have
applications beyond the blind community for individuals with other visual
impairments, cognitive deficits, or those recovering from brain injuries.
About JoVE
JoVE, the Journal of Visualized
Experiments, is the first and only PubMed/MEDLINE-indexed, peer-reviewed
journal devoted to publishing scientific research in a video format.
Using an
international network of videographers, JoVE films and edits videos
of researchers performing new experimental techniques at top universities,
allowing students and scientists to learn them much more quickly.
As of March
2013, JoVE has published video-protocols from an international
community of nearly 6,000 authors in the fields of biology, medicine,
chemistry, and physics.