AudioOdyssey Brings Blind & Sighted Together in Perfect Harmony

Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Singaporean students have come up with video game that allows blind and sighted gamers to play together on an even field. AudiOdyssey uses the WII motes motion sensing capability to allow players to create complex musical tracks, like a deejay trying to spin tunes to get things moving on the dance floor.

Eitan Glinert, a graduate student in computer science at the Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab, said the idea for AudioOdyssey came to him as he was looking over games designed for people with disabilities. He noticed that the game were so tailored to a disability that they couldn’t be played by people without that disability.

As a sighted player, I was unable to play any of these.” The games had been so specifically adapted for sound and tactile play that they gave the visually impaired too much of an advantage, making it impractical for them to play with sighted friends. “There were games for sighted people, games for blind people, and never the twain shall meet,” he says. “I thought, maybe I could build a game that could be played by both, equally well.”

AudiOdyssey is designed to be controlled by Wii-mote or keyboard. The game is currently available for free download (Windows only) at http://gambit.mit.edu/loadgame/audiodyssey.php. A more sophisticated version of the game that will allow players to compete online is in development and should be available late this summer.

I can see where the game may have a certain appeal to a wide audience; especially those gamers that have always wanted to throw a rave in their living room.

via ScienceDaily