Virtual reality archery is “Braille” for orientation of blind people
Virtual reality archery is “Braille” for orientation of blind people
Virtual reality archery is “Braille” for orientation of blind people
January 4, 2022
Summary
Genova, January 4th, 2022 - Researchers at the IIT-IstitutoItaliano di Tecnologia developed an acoustic virtual reality-based archery game, enabling blind people to experience for the first time this type of technology, which is typically focused on vision.
The platform maybe used in the future to rehabilitate blind people's orientation skills and make them more independent, like the Braille does for reading and writing.
"The ability to orient in space is obviously linked to vision, but the mechanisms by which this happens and the strategies used by the human brain to cope with vision loss are still unclear" says Dr. Monica Gori, who coordinates the Unit for Visually Impaired People at IstitutoItaliano di Tecnologia in Genova.
Contrarily to common belief, blind people do not have super-hearing.
Thanks to the new platform, researchers demonstrated that congenital blind people struggle at coordinating head and trunk to reorient towards new targets, yet the main information source they rely on is the body - via vestibular, proprioceptive and motor cues - rather than the environmental sounds, which are instead preferred by blindfolded sighted people.
Davide Esposito, developer of the archery game and member of the UVIP Lab, says: "Scientific purpose of the game aside, giving blind people the chance to try virtual reality was fulfilling. Many of our participants were having lot of fun while doing the experiment, and wanted to keep playing even after the experiment ended".
The researchers hope the platform, which so far has been used for assessment only, could be turned into a serious game to rehabilitate blind people's orientation skills and make them more independent, like the Braille does for reading and writing.
Reference
Virtual reality archery is "Braille" for orientation of blind people. (2021, January 4). Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/939187