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Location-Based 3D Audiogame Debuts
Ant writes "Demor is a location-based 3D audio shooter - according to the official site: 'This highly innovative game was developed by a multi-disciplinary team of seven EMMA-students for the Bartimeus Institute for the Blind. Demor does not only focus on the entertainment aspect of computer gaming, but also attempts to contribute to the emancipation of the blind and visually impaired people in order to enhance their integration with the 'sighted' world. It is a proof of concept developed on the basis of theoretical and practical research' - there's a preview of the game over at AudioGames.net, who also cover Drive, a demo of an audio racing game created for the same institute."
No, wait...
walking around with a headset and holding a joystick connected to your plastic backpack is not really the best way to "enhance [one's] integration with the 'sighted' world." (more like the best way to integrate yourself with a "kick me" note taped on your plastic backpack.) that said, it is fairly cool technology.
sorta offtopic, regarding 3-D audio technology (EAX, A3D), does anyone else find them to be highly lacking? For example, in America's Army, I've noticed in the training missions when you are required to listen to someone talking to you, the best sound comes when you've turned your head 90 degrees to the speaker, so one "ear" is directly facing him. The only time one needs to do this in real life is if one is hard of hearing, or in an environment full of background noise. Its like the designers have the right idea, they're just not implementing some facet of how we process sound properly. I can't see how the algorithms currently in use could be implemented in the game the article refers to. Hopefully software developed for people who use their hearing as the primary sense of input does a better job of capturing the real world phenomena (and that it eventually makes it's way into gaming audio technology)...
This wasn't a market study but a technology study. Actually the hardware requirements are pretty modest: some GPS hardware; a computer with 3d sound, some headphones and a joystick. In a couple of years all of these will probably be embedded in most mobile phones. Aside from that, a gps device might come in very handy if you are blind.
I saw a demo of this on tv yesterday. Some blind kids were having quite a bit of fun. It looked really silly seeing them move around seemingly random in some field. But the whole point was that this kind of stuff is possible with off the shelf hardware and a couple of students doing some coding after classes.
Jilles