Audio game design: state of the art and prototype development

Abstract

Videogame industry has undergone a very important and sustained growth during the last decades, however, its accessibility conditions are a pending issue. Despite the evidence of the benefits of these games in multiple dimensions of the human being (social, cognitive, psychomotor) there are currently very few developments for people with disabilities. In this context, audio games are a type of computer games that do not have visual cues, therefore accessible to visually impaired people. This doctoral project seeks to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and development of this type of technology. It is expected that this project will favor the generation of applications for entertainment, spatial hearing training and inclusion of people with different visual abilities. This paper presents background information on this type of technology and the design of a virtual reality audiogame for spatial hearing training with preliminary results of experimental studies carried out with it.