Last Saturday we had some discussions online and identified that the 'Hasaki' is the project we want to complete in the near future.

Theme of Team

Our theme is ability-centric interactions, which require us to design interactions from an ability-specific point-of-view for some specific targets. For our project, we are going to create hearing-somatosensory games, which focus on improving hearing ability, especially for blind people.

Original Idea

The initial intention was from a YouTuber, Bertolt Meyer, who's born without an arm. However, he made himself a mechanical synthetic arm to satisfy all his needs, including his love of music. I was touched and inspired by him and wanted to design something for the disabled to make their life more convenient or bring them more happiness. As hearing is one of the most essential sensory to feel the world for the blind people, and the level of hearing ability determines how much they fell the real world. Therefore, our human value hopes to provide them with exciting entertainment, which can help improve hearing ability at the same time.

What is this project/ installation looks like?

How it works

Scenario

Some Warning

Safety is something that needs to be taken into consideration since waving around a sword of some kind leaves risks in it self. Another thing is that the target group (blind people) is a very sensitive target group and you guys should therefore be careful when making something for this group. What mean by that was just be aware that this is a protected group when it comes to research so keep that in mind.

However, at the moment it seems quite simple and could get boring quickly so I think we need to add another element/story/object to engage users.

More function

maybe come up a way that present visual information using sound, rather than just sound comes from different directions

On a technical note we can get full 3d audio just on a pair of headphones. The examples we showed had the people using their hearing to move getting more information from the surrounding environment than just enemy direction. Having people listen for quieter sounds and giving the player the ability to move around the room would add interesting complexity. Other control methods could also be added by using a cane as well for the user to be able to feel their environment.

So in one word, We need to think a lot about how can we make this installation more playful and meaningful. Since our potential is the people we need protect them avoid the potential risks.