G4H: game accessibility research @ University of Nevada, Reno

Loading...

Flash Player 9 (or above) is needed to view presentations.
We have detected that you do not have it on your computer. To install it, go here.

0 comments

Post a comment

    Post a comment
    Embed Video
    Edit your comment Cancel

    2 Favorites & 1 Event

    G4H: game accessibility research @ University of Nevada, Reno - Presentation Transcript

    1. Games 4 Health Conference, Boston Game Accessibility Workshop June 10th 2009 Game Accessibility Research @ Eelke Folmer
    2. Overview 1.Introduction 2.Motivation for Research 3.Research Projects: 1 TextSL 4.Lessons Learned 5.Q&A
    3. Eelke Folmer Assistant Professor (2006) Player-Game-Interaction Lab 2 MS. / 3 Ph.D / 1 PostDoc Research Interests: Dead Space  Human Computer Interaction  Software Engineering  Games / Virtual Worlds  http://www.eelke.com Wii-Fit  “You are what you play”: BioShock
    4. Motivations
    5. Games are pervasive Education Advertising Politics Military Simulations Health ...
    6. Diverse audience More & more people are interested in playing games Varying amounts of experience & abilities Individuals with disabilities often face significant barriers to or are excluded from playing games What are these barriers? Illustrate with a Game Interaction Model
    7. How do we play games? game output 3 different modalities input player
    8. Detailed Steps 1.Game provides feedback {enemies/ gunfire/ sound} 2.Player decides what in-game response to provide: 1.(a) Do nothing. 2.(b) Move or reorient his/her character. 3.(c) Fire his/her gun. 4.(d) Change the weapon. 5.(e) Change the camera viewpoint. 6.(f) Reload, pause, or save the game. 3.The player must physically issue the chosen action(s) through a physical device. 4.The internal state of the game may change and new feedback may be provided
    9. Synthesis 1. feedback 1. feedback 1. feedback 2. up/down 2. left/right/gas 2. left/right/shoot 3. button 3. wheel 3. button / mouse
    10. Game Interaction model
    11. Disability
    12. Disability
    13. Disability
    14. Disability
    15. Disability
    16. Game Accessibility Stats ★Disability may affect ability to play to different extents ★Based on Census 2006 data & game interaction model we found that in the US: ★6.2 Million disabled are unable to play games at all ★25.9 Million disabled suffer from reduced game experience ★Elderly overly represented in our estimates. ★Nevertheless this will be a big problem in the future
    17. Our research ★Understand exactly what barriers individuals with disabilities face. ★Research alternative ways to play: ★Feedback from alternative modalities ★Reduced amounts of input. ★while retaining game experience ★Focus on game genres that are NOT accessible ★More complex interaction models ★Provide examples & guidelines to the game industry.
    18. Guitar Hero > 21M copies sold Dominate sales charts Not playable by
    19. Viable strategies ? VI accessible games Guitar Hero • Speech • Interference with music • Earcons • Sonification • Too many stimuli • Audio Cues
    20. Haptic output 5 Different “notes” ! Varying note lengths Lookahead <3 notes simultaneously ! ? ? Glove Pager engines (# ? ) “Haptic Cues”? Position?
    21. Tradeoffs ! remove lookahead ! ★“whack a mole” gameplay Remove ★retain “guitar playing” feeling 1 button ★Easy to learn ★Fun!
    22. Play testing
    23. User Study Participants 8 sighted + 4 visually impaired age 20 - 41 (SD=4.5) Groups 1 sighted Blind Hero first time players 2 blind Blind Hero first time players 3 sighted Blind Hero experts on Guitar Hero 4 sighted Guitar Hero first time players Play 2 songs repeatedly (to measure increase) for 4 times
    24. Results guitar Hero - novice expert VI novice Haptic is a viable strategy for Music based games Performance lower but could increase over time Most important: participants enjoyed the game
    25. one switch games
    26. Problem switch controller mouth controller eye tracker one handed joystick  rely upon adapted controllers Constrained (type/ amount) Suitable for arcade/puzzle games Not suitable for popular game genres (FPS, RTS, etc)
    27. Research objective less ? Find smallest amount of input. Preserve gameplay. Find the “core” of the game. What strategies can be used? more
    28. Experiences less ✔ ✔ ✔  Support all types of input  Find minimum (may not be binary 1 switch)  Identified the following mechanisms:  automation  reduction more  scanning  How do these change the gameplay?
    29. Gordon’s Trigger Finger Be able to respond fast Scanning/automating/removing Idea: player on top of a bot? Evaluate alternatives Scanning too slow moving user automated Multiplayer only aiming user automated fire user user Railshooter switch weapons user random Balanced/ Fair open doors user automated FUN jump/crawl user removed
    30. Video
    31. One Switch Interfaces Music Puzzle Games virtual world Sports Games first person shooter
    32. TextSL
    33. Virtual Worlds Second Life / There / Active / Home Higher degree of interaction. Visually attractive Entirely driven by user generated content Virtual Economy Social Interaction most important Estimated: in 4 years 80% of internet users will have a VW account
    34. Accessibility Problem ? ? ? Unlike Web, VW lack textual representation Not Accessible with screen reader / tactile display VW increasingly used as virtual classrooms / distance learning (Section 508) Communities for Disabled in SL (Virtual ability) Research how VW can be made accessible  develop prototype interface
    35. Analyze differences virtual worlds video games  VW lack Combat/Storyline/Score  No need for quick responses as you cannot die  Everything is user generated (large amount of content you cannot change)  Viewer offers large number of functions including creating objects. Many operations on objects. Objects define their own functionality through scripts.  VW viewers is more like a browser.
    36. Output Strategies  VI games (TerraFormers, AudioQuake, Shades of Doom) with similar interaction mechanisms as VW.  All use audio  Levels have minimum number of objects  Most strategies focus on being able to locate “enemies”  Earcons & Audio Cues (too many objects in VW & you cannot augment objects )  Sound Radar (not applicable)  Speech (applicable, but requires augmentation)
    37. Controls  Controls the same as the original games (arrow keys)  Player has to do the pathfinding which is useful for mental mapping (dungeons)  Generic “use” command to interact with objects  Design of levels accommodates limited interaction & manual pathfinding  CS difficult to implement in Virtual worlds as  Large amount of objects & avatars  Large number of functions to support.  Mental mapping impossible in VW  Manual Pathfinding is very hard
    38. Different approach  Command based interface (TextSL):  Inspired by multi user dungeon games (MUD)  “chat interface” to support social interaction  Iteratively extract texts that can be read with a screen reader  Command based interaction supports interaction with large amounts of objects & Avatars (“give my flower to jane”, “sit on chair”)
    39. TextSL features  Commands in 3 categories:  Exploration (move / fly / teleport / follow / describe /where)  Communication (say / whisper / mute,.....)  Interaction (sit, touch.....)  Notable features:  Natural language (go / travel / walk all map to “move” ) increasing learnability. Interpreter allows for prepositions and adjectives “give my chair to...”  Collision free navigation. e.g. “Move forward 100”  Summarizer aims to minimize the amount of feedback provided to avoid overwhelming the user with feedback.
    40. User Studies  Compare TextSL with SL  8 Sighted & 8 Screen reader users  Tasks in 3 categories + tutorial  Measure success rate & performance times  TextSL has same succesrate as SL viewer for performing tasks (accessibility)  Exploration & Interaction significantly slower (usability)  Communication the same.  Command based interface is a feasible approach
    41. Lessons Learned  Research contributions:  Haptic feedback is a viable strategy for making music based games accessible to VI.  Popular game genres can be made switch accessible by automating, reducing or making it switch accessible but it involves significant tradeoffs with regard to the gameplay. For a number of popular game genres we now understand these tradeoffs.  Virtual worlds are different from Video games and require a different strategy to make them accessible to VI. A command-based interface is a feasible approach.  lack of meta data for objects in SL
    42. Questions? A description of all research projects & media (video/ downloads) can be found on http://www.eelke.com

    + eelke folmereelke folmer, 4 months ago

    custom

    416 views, 2 favs, 1 embeds more stats

    Invited talk at the Games for Health Conference wor more

    More info about this document

    CC Attribution-NonCommercial LicenseCC Attribution-NonCommercial License

    Go to text version

    • Total Views 416
      • 397 on SlideShare
      • 19 from embeds
    • Comments 0
    • Favorites 2
    • Downloads 10
    Most viewed embeds
    • 19 views on http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com

    more

    All embeds
    • 19 views on http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com

    less

    Flagged as inappropriate Flag as inappropriate
    Flag as inappropriate

    Select your reason for flagging this presentation as inappropriate. If needed, use the feedback form to let us know more details.

    Cancel
    File a copyright complaint
    Having problems? Go to our helpdesk?

    Categories

    Groups / Events