A
SIMPLE GAME GENERATOR TO DESIGN AUDIO/TACTILE GAME FOR YOUNG BLIND CHILDREN
9 quai Saint Bernard
Paris 75005
Day Phone: +33144272610
Email: dominique.archambault@upmc.fr
Presenter(s)
Arnaud Puret (2)
Nicolas Monmarch頨
(2)
Mohand
Slimane (2)
Laboratoire
d'Informatique de l'Universit順ran篩s Rabelais,
A software game generator to easily design
content templates for a simple audio/tactile matching game dedicated for very
young children with severe visual impairment.
1. The TiM project
The overall aim of the TiM
project (Tactile Interactive Multimedia computer games for visually disabled
children) [1] was to provide young visually disabled children, with or without
additional disabilities, with multimedia computer games they can access independently,
that is without any assistance of a sighted person. Original studies about
adaptation of game interaction situations to non visual interfaces were
performed, and we have developed a game development platform, called blindstation [2], facilitating
the design of games intended to visually disabled children.
The blindstation is an
API using a modality-independent model: one of its most important features is
the separation between the game scenario (implemented independently of the
devices, using the Python scripting language language
and the abstract components of the API) and the multimodal and multilingual
resources (an XML style sheet associate the game objects with the resources
necessary for each device). The API components are able to manage various
devices corresponding to modalities used by visually impaired people (tactile, audio,
large screen displays). Blindstation is an opensource software that can be downloaded
at http://libbraille.org/blindstation">http://libbraille.org/blindstation
A set of games was designed and these games have
been evaluated with visually disabled children [3]. Information about TiM games can be accessed on timgames
website: http://www.timgames.org">http://www.timgames.org
2. findit!
One of the games prototypes designed during the TiM project, <em>findit!</em>,
is a very simple matching game, intended to work with
various content sets, called templates. This
game is dedicated to very young visually impaired children. It can also be used
with older visually impaired children with additional cognitive disabilities.
A first content template was developed during
the TiM project. It is based on 4 cats in 4 different
situations: the purring cat, the kitten, the angry cat, the hungry cat. Then it
contains 4 illustrations, 4 sounds, 4 recorded audio comments (like This one is
pleased, this must be Happy, the purring cat ), etc. A
tactile overlay
was developed with the cat represented in the
same way in each case (a round piece of fur): on a pillow for the purring one,
with corners in sand paper for the angry one, close to a plastic plate for the
hungry one, and then the kitten is smaller and in a small basket. The
player can either discover the overlay and hear the
sound of the different areas or be asked by the computer to find one of the
cats. A zoom mode allows partially sighted children to access a full size alternative
image of each cat.
Tactile overlays are designed independently from
the game generator. Indeed, according to the age of the target children, the best
way is to use various nice material sticked on a PVC sheet. The tactile overlay is
inserted in a tactile board. The blindstation was designed
to work as well with tactile boards connected to the serial port (like the
Concept Keyboard, from the Concept Keyboard Company TM: blindstation
supports its protocol) or using tactile boards connected
via the keyboard port (like IntelliKeys
TM or the Swedish Flexiboard TM: via the use of
keyboard shortcuts).
The game itself is very simple but its interest
comes from: (1) the possibility of designing series of templates allowing to tell a little story. (2) the
availability of a very simple game generator enabling any person without any
specific computer skills to design templates.
3. The game generator
The
game generator provides a very simple drag and drop interface allowing to
design templates that can be eventually chained together.
3.1 Template objects
The
generator allows to set up the number of objects of the template. There is no
limitation but it is not realistic to put too much objects on the tactile
sheet. On an A4 it various from 3 to 12, but can be set to 32 for instance in
the case of Braille labels in a game intended fro beginner Braille readers. The
various objects will
be associated with a rectangle on the screen, a
set of cells on the tactile board and a keyboard shortcut.
A simple screen editor shows a preview of the
game screen and allows to set up the objects sizes
with the mouse, and to select sets of objects to align according to various
layouts (horizontal/vertical centered, flushed right/left, top/bottom).
3.2 Resources for each object
Then
each object can be associated with a picture, an alternative text, an
alternative picture (for the zoom mode), an spoken comment. Additionally it is
possible to record some spoken guidelines and clues if the template is intended
to be used as a matching game.
The software embeds a simple audio recorder with
volume control and basic editing function (select, cut and trim). It is also
possible to pick up an existing file via standard dialog boxes.
3.3 Game generation
Finally
the game generator will create an XML file of the game, and a package
containing all the resources: sounds, images, localisation
of tactile and screen areas, keyboard
shortcuts... This template will be loaded in the findit
game. A selection screen allows to choose between the
templates available on the computer.
3.4 Implementation
As the blindstation is
multilingual, the game generator allows to prepare the
games in several languages. It is also quite simple to use it to translate an
existing template into a new language. The interface itself supports also
multiple languages (French, English and Swedish).
The game generator was developed using the
Python language. The user graphical interface is built using wxWidgets (http://www.wxwidgets.org">http://www.wxwidgets.org), a very efficient opensource cross-platform GUI framework. The audio uses the
Snack Sound Toolkit (http://www.speech.kth.se/snack">http://www.speech.kth.se/snack).
4. Conclusion
The system allows a person without specific
computer skills to develop an interesting game for children with severe visual
impairment very young and/or having additional troubles. The next step is to
create a user friendly web repository where template designers can share ideas and
templates. The presentation will show examples of templates and how to use the
game generator.
Acknowledgements
The
TiM project is funded by the European Commission (the
contents of this paper is the sole responsibility of the authors an in no way represents
the views of the European Commission or its services) on the program IST 2000
(FP5/IST/Systems and Services for the Citizen/Persons with special needs),
under the reference
IST-2000-25298.
References
[1] Dominique Archambault.
The TiM Project: Overview of results. In K. Miesenberger, J. Klaus, W. Zagler,
and D. Burger, editors, Proc. ICCHP 2004 (9th International Conference on
Computers Helping People with Special Needs), volume 3118 of LNCS, pages
345-352, Paris, France, July 2004. Springer.
[2] S颡stien Sabl頡nd Dominique Archambault. Blindstation: a Game
platform adapted to visually impaired children. In Ger Craddock, Lisa McCormack,
Richard Reilly, and Harry Knops, editors, Assistive Technology Shaping the
future, Proceedings of the AAATE 03 Conference, Dublin, Ireland, pages 232-236,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September 2003. IOS Press.
[3] Dominique Archambault.
THE TiM COMPUTER GAMES FOR VISUALLY
IMPAIRED CHILDREN. In CSUN Conference 2004.
http://www.csun.edu/cod/conf/2004/proceedings/81.htm">http://www.csun.edu/cod/conf/2004/proceedings/81.htm
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