2007-11-15 01:32:02

Researchers of the University of Reno are currently doing a project in which they're trying to make Guitar Hero accessible for the blind. Guitar Hero is a popular Playstation 2 game in which the player has to play songs on a guitar-shaped controller. The early prototype uses a force-feedback glove which used vibration to let the player know which notes to play and for how long. There are 4 different frets and the notes vary in length on a scale from 1 to 40; which combined creates up to 250 different stimuli. The researchers considered using audio cues, and with regard to the required hardware that would have been a better solution but listening to the music and using audio cues even using a headset with split outputs turned out just too confusing. Each finger of the haptic glove starts buzzing whenever you need to play a note and when it stops you release it. The following video on YouTube shows the first time the system was tested out with a blind person, who had never played Guitar Hero nor guitar before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UwY0vyCXxg (unfortunately without captions or descriptions)

Early tests have shown that modifying the "spatial" resolution of the glove gives much better results. The researchers themselves claim to be able "to play most of the easy songs blind ourselves". Although the system is not yet perfect, it will be continued to be adjusted and tested within the next few weeks. And then keep your fingers crossed that Alex and his team over at Harmonix/MTV will be as enthousiastic as we are smile !

2007-11-15 18:01:49

uh, isn't it made for xbox? lol But why don't they makers, make a hardware based pc connecting sound (not voice) simple synthesizer with tone buttons? You get my gist?

Regards,
Tristan
Trek Games, inc.

2007-11-15 21:30:41

well, sounds very great. big_smile

2007-11-15 23:19:29

No, its for PS2. And I've played it, and I actually got through the easy difficulty slowed down a lot with someone telling me which notes to play. But that's cool, an accessible version.

Regards,
Mike
Co-Founder, RS Games
www.rsgames.org

2007-11-16 11:55:36

I've managed a few of the songs, but the glove idea is going to be wicked difficult at higher speeds, particularly the differentiation between strumming and holding, between legato and staccato. Memorization is key. *lol*

Check out my Manamon text walkthrough at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ls3rc3f4mkb … n.txt?dl=1

2007-11-17 01:02:26

This is ironic i was just thinking of something similar although I can play the regular pretty good.  Practice makes perfect.  Not that i don't think this is awesome it really is.

2007-12-10 01:38:59

Actually, Guitar Hero 1 is only for the PS2, but Guitar Hero 2 and 3 are for both PS2 and Xbox 360. Guitar Hero 3 is also out for the Nintendo Wii and it's out for the PC as well. I know all this stuff for a fact. There are also tons of Guitar Hero simulators for the PC as well. That's what they were using in the video, they weren't playin on the real game.

I'm wondering how they'll make it used for the PS2 though... Hmm... I guess it wouldn't be too hard if you make the glove a part of the guitar controller because other wise the game won't have a dot I R X file to call the controller or the special functions.

This is really good though. I'm excited for it.