Blind Hero: UNev Reno Team Modifies Game Interfaces for the Disabled

Chris Kohler at Wired’s Game|Life Blog writes about Dr. Eelke Folmer’s work over at University of Nevada, Reno.

Folmer’s most awesome project thus far is informally referred to as “Blind Hero.” It’s a guitar-based music game that can be played without looking at the screen. Folmer’s group developed a glove that vibrates your fingers a split-second before you’re supposed to play each note in the game. It’s difficult to play, but with enough practice you can experience the sensation of playing guitar without the onscreen commands.

Kohler noted that “Blind Hero” is the brainchild of UNR PhD student Bei Yuan. Additional work by Folmer & company includes modifying existing games so that they can be played easier by the disabled.

One example of how this works is a modified Mario Kart-style game for PC. The player’s kart automatically accelerates and steers to the right. Pressing the switch allows the player to steer to the left. A modified version of Half-Life 2 that Folmer showed us puts the player into the body of an automatically controlled bot, and the player simply needs to press the fire button when an enemy gets in his sights … Folmer stresses that his group’s ambition is not to create new game designs for people with disabilities, but to modify already-existing games, to show that any game can be rendered accessible.

This continues a long series of efforts to make videogames more accessible, many springing from the minds of university researchers. I’ve noted past efforts on brain computer interfaces that don’t require hands, and more recent presentations on neural networks at GDC this year.