BatSight: A Navigation Game to Map Environmental Information into Audio Cues

Abstract

By using sound to visualize the real-world environment, audio games can offer a completely new game experience. In this paper, we study how audio cues can be visualized in computer games to enhance the navigation skills of players. To this end, we propose an audio game in which blindfolded players move through a physical maze with the help of audio cues. To realize this game, a sonar headset is designed and built based on ultrasonic sensors, which maps the external environment features into musical sounds. The game is played in a real-world environment and uses an augmented reality approach as it adds virtual sounds to the real world. The gaming environment of this game is a physical maze, where the blindfolded players enter the maze while wearing the sonar headset. A user study was conducted to evaluate the effect of using different sound mapping techniques on navigation performance and playing experience in the game proposed in this paper. The results show that producing musical sound can lead to better navigation performance, game experience, and immersion in players.