Guitar hero for the blind

Wired has a great article on a professor at University of Nevada, Reno who has adapted an open source video game for the blind. The game is modeld on Guitar hero and requires the player to key in "chords" on the plastic guitar as they see them occur on the screen. The mod this professor has done, is to provide that stimulus through haptic feedback using a glove with vibrating fingers. Check out the video below for and interview and demonstration of this great mod or the video and article at Wired

More on accessible gaming

It appears that I'm not the only person who had thought about the possible assistive technology possibilities of the headset from Emotiv that allows users to manipulate items on the screen using their minds (Febuary 24).
Peter Abrahams speculates on the AT uses of this same headset in a recent article for IT-director.com. He is optimistic that the technology will be released for this use as Emotive is an IBM affiliate. I hope that he's right, it could prove a valuable alternative for those with a variety of disabilites.

Until the headset is released, switches are one major way that a significantly impaired individual may utilize a computer. Basically, any voluntary movement can be used to create a switch which would allow a user to use a computer, these include breathing (puffing), or moving a foot, or finger.

Kotaku has a recent article about the release of a new website who's goal is to make gaming more accessible to everyone, Assistive Gaming. In this article, they talk about the challenges of using assistive technology to participate in computer games.

If you have ever doubted how effective assistive technology can be, view the video either below or in the Kotaku article. It is called "One Thumb to Rule Them All" and is about Mike Phillips a young man who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). It shows him using a switch with his thumb in barely perceptable movements to play an action video game called World of Warcraft or WOW to its users. It's an amazing video and demonstration of the efficacy of assistive technology.

Accessible gaming

Accessibility is got a look in at the National Game Developers Conference last weekend.

"The Game Accessibility Special Interest Group (SIG) of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) will be presenting its popular Accessibility Arcade session at the Game Developers Conference 2008...SIG members also want to convey that Game Accessibility does not mean non-creative, non-innovative games. Hinn welcomes both skeptics and supporters of game accessibility to see the opportunities for fostering a more socially aware industry and "to educate themselves and help break down preconceived notions about configuring games and controllers that can also include gamers with disabilities. Come take a look at some of the incredible next generation controllers that we'll have on display from Emotiv, Natural Point, One Switch, as well as game accessibility solutions such as Doom3 and other games with complete closed captioning by Reid Kimball of Games[cc] and "Blind Hero," which allows the blind to play guitar hero using a haptic device developed by SIG member Eelke Folmer at the University of Nevada, Reno. And find out more about our partner sites, AbleGamers.com and One Switch, to see how we are getting information not just to the game development community but also out to gamers with disabilities themselves about games and controllers that are or can become accessible at one of the kiosks we'll have to showcase these web communities. "

Read the full article

"Brain Control Headset for Gamers"

Interesting piece from the BBC about a headset using electroencephalography (EEG) technology to create a headset where gamers (video game players) can manipulate things on the screen using their mind, reflect users emotions to on screen characters, and has a gyroscope built in so that it can detect movement by the user.
Emotiv's website has three dimensional depiction of the headset. Though no further information is available from their website, the 3D model is worth a look.
From video demonstration it is difficult to determine whether the screen is changing because of the movement of the user, facial expressions or mindwaves.

I would be very intersted to see whether any research is being done to evaluate the potential uses in the assistive technology market. I could see this being an extremely powerful piece of equipment with the right software, allowing users with significant mobility impairments to have greater access to assistive technology.

The headset is predicted to cost $299 and be available by the end of the year.