TheFoodbot Factoryserious game was developed to be used in Canadian classrooms and for online learning to teach students in grades 4–6 about nutrition. However, as with most video games and serious games,Foodbot Factorywas not developed with accessibility in mind and, therefore, cannot be played by individuals with, for example, visual impairments. Following the Game Accessibility Guidelines and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, we converted a portion ofFoodbot Factoryinto an audio game for visually impaired and blind players. In this article, we highlight the process required for converting theFoodbot Factoryserious game into an accessible audio game. We also present the results of a preliminary user study that was conducted to examine the usability of theFoodbot Factoryaudio game. Although all participants were sighted individuals and our results are limited and preliminary, theFoodbot Factoryaudio game is usable. Based on our experience in developing theFoodbot Factoryaudio game in addition to our usability study results, we have shown that an existing serious game that lacks adherence to accessibility guidelines can be converted into the accessible version of the game.

Despite the be benefits of serious games and their growing popularity across many educational contexts, they generally have have fixed scenarios that cannot be easily modified, leading to predictable and dull experiences that can reduce user engagement. We recently introducedMoirai, a novel, no-code serious games authoring platform that allows educators with limited (if any) programming experience to use a diagram-based interface to create new modifications and customize serious game scenarios focused on decision and communication skills development. In this paper, we describe a usability study that saw medical educators with limited programming knowledge create a pre-defined serious game scenario usingMoirai. Results indicate a high degree of usability and revealed various changes that can be made to improveMoirai.

The VR-SIM Carers project is focused on developing a virtual reality-based simulation training platform (VRSTP) where dementia caregivers/care partners may safely practice different strategies and approaches to difficult caregiving scenarios without real-world consequences within an interactive 3D virtual world. Since no two caregiver situations are alike, it is necessary to build multiple VR scenarios. However, developing each scenario is time-consuming, requiring extensive programming knowledge. Here, we briefly outline our preliminary work developing a graphical-based, “no-code” authoring platform that allows educators and clinicians with limited, if any, programming experience to develop new, or modify existing scenarios specific to VR-SIM Carers.

In Canada, the City of Oshawa recently became a member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities to promote healthy, active aging and good quality of life for older residents. Part of this strategy includes educating municipal employees on age-friendly cultural competencies. To facilitate this, we have developed an innovative and immersive virtual environment that couples serious gaming with a gamified educational network learning management system. The virtual environment will provide an interactive and engaging learning platform to teach age-friendly cultural competencies to municipal staff.

This paper presents the results of a preliminary experiment that examined the accuracy of drill depth perception using auditory cues only. The results of this experiment will form the basis of a larger study that will investigate the effects of simulated drilling within medical-based training/educational tasks for online teaching employing non-specialized, consumer-level devices/hardware available to trainees in their homes.

This mixed-method research addresses two problems: 1) the need to understand more deeply the lived experiences of individuals with mental illness to inform the design of a virtual serious game (VSG) and; 2) the need for more accessible and interactive mental health VSGs for nursing student learning before attending community placements. We began with an Ontario-wide collection of individual narratives about living with mental illness using qualitative methods and then applied the findings in two ways. First, we incorporated the person-centered feedback into the serious VSGs’ storyline, and secondly, we developed and refined the VSG prototype. Next, we will implement the VSG into the nursing curriculum for evaluation of learning outcomes.

Despite its importance in the real-world, manual (hand) dexterity is often ignored in medical-based virtual training environments that have traditionally focused on cognitive and affective skills development. Psychomotor (technical) skills, particularly those related to manual dexterity, are fundamental to various medical procedures and ignoring them in virtual based training tools can lead to a sub-optimal training experience. Here, we present a novel, consumer-level data glove that provides accurate user interactions involving the proximal and medial phalanges, interactions that are relevant in many manual dexterity tasks. We also outline how this novel data glove is being incorporated into an existing serious gaming platform for anesthesia training that currently focuses on cognitive and affective skills development only. The addition of psychomotor skills development through the adoption of simulated tactile feedback will provide a more complete serious gaming training platform.

Cardiac auscultation is a routine medical examination whereby using a stethoscope placed over various regions of the patient's chest, a health care professional listens to the patient's hear murmurs to diagnose their heart condition. Cardiac auscultation training has evolved from relying on patient and audio recordings to employing simulation manikins, multimedia, mobile applications, and most recently digital simulations, including virtual reality (VR) that allows training without the limitations of physical laboratories. Typically, at a consumer-level VR headset orientation is used to identify areas of attention and trigger interactions, while high-end headsets make use of eye tracking. This paper presents a work in progress comparison between headset orientation and eye tracking employing two different VR controllers to understand focus on items on screen. Preliminary results indicate that participants spent a significant amount of time browsing the scene rather than relevant objects for the examination. With respect to the tracking methods, eye tracking was the most reliable, thus highlighting the need for thoughtful headset tracking. Future work will focus on a larger study to develop a tool to enhance VR headset interactions by understating how they compare to gaze captured data for more effective interactions and navigation in VR for successful training.

Spatial audio is an important component of realistic simulations in virtual environments. However, there have been shortcomings in existing spatial audio rendering systems, due to the computational cost of rendering realistic sound propagation. In this article, we present a novel spatial audio rendering method using 3-D graphs to simulate sound propagation in real time. We then ask if such a distinction in accuracy makes a difference to task performance, and test this proposition in a 3-D game. We conclude that improvements in spatial audio rendering do increase task performance.

In this article, we present the anesthesia crisis scenario builder (ACSB) framework prototype that allows for the development of (or modification of existing) anesthesia crisis resource management-based virtual simulations. The ACSB framework was developed specifically to allow medical educators, who may have a limited (if any) programming/software development background, to replicate and edit anesthesia scenarios based on preprogrammed steps from the anesthetic crisis manual. The scenarios can be developed simply and intuitively using a graphical user interface. Results of a preliminary study examining the usability of the ACSB framework indicate the ease of creating a crisis scenario with limited, if any, programming knowledge.

Board games present accessibility barriers for players with visual impairment since they often employ visuals alone to communicate gameplay information. Our research focuses on board game accessibility for those with visual impairment. This paper describes a three-phase study conducted to develop board game accessibility adaptation guidelines. These guidelines were developed through a user-centered design approach that included in-depth interviews and a series of user studies using two adapted board games. Our findings indicate that participants with and without visual impairment were able to play the adapted games, exhibiting a balanced experience whereby participants had complete autonomy and were provided with equal chances of victory. Our paper also contributes to the game and accessibility communities through the development of adaptation guidelines that allow board games to become inclusive irrespective of a player's visual impairment.

The influx of investment in virtual and augmented reality in recent years has brought with it a renewed interest in spatial audio. Spatial audio in virtual environments and games has been neglected previously due in part due to computationally expensive nature of the processing involved. Here we introduce G-SpAR, a GPU-based spatial audio renderer for the Unity3D game engine. The system develops a pathfinding method that shortens occlusion and obstruction, increasing performance in-game.

Recent hardware and computational advancements are providing the opportunity to develop virtual simulations and serious games with high levels of (visual) fidelity using off-the-shelf consumer-level hardware. However, so far, these applications have generally been restricted to cognitive skills training given the complexities and costs associated with high-end haptic-based rendering inherent in a variety of applications including those related to medical-based technical skills development. In the visual domain, sound has been shown to influence the perception of visual fidelity perception yet little, if any work has investigated the effect of sound on haptic fidelity perception. In this paper, we examine the influence of sound on haptic fidelity perception in a virtual drilling scenario to determine whether the low fidelity haptic feedback associated with lower-end, consumer level haptic devices can be compensated for through the use of sound. Although our results are preliminary, they do indicate that sound can o influence (increase) haptic fidelity perception.

Here we present a novel multi-player serious game for the purpose of cultural sensitivity competence training aimed at healthcare providers and trainees. The serious game allows for a wide variety of realistic culturally sensitive scenarios to be easily created and simulated.

Given the sparsity of standard game engines and frameworks for serious game development, developers of serious games typically rely on entertainment-based game development tools. However, given the large number of game engines and frameworks dedicated to entertainment game development, deciding on which tool to employ may be difficult. A literature review that examined the frameworks and game engines used to develop serious games was recently conducted. Here, a list of the most commonly identified frameworks and game engines and a summary of their features is provided. The results presented provide insight to those seeking tools to develop serious games.

The main aim of this paper is to analyze the existing Internet-based learning (IBL) literature as it pertains to health professions education to draw on common interpretations, and to propose a framework to implement IBL within the area of health professions education. Central to our approach is the incorporation of gamification within IBL to promote greater levels of engagement and motivation and thus enhance the learning experience.

Visual and auditory cues are important facilitators of user engagement in virtual environments and video games. Prior research supports the notion that our perception of visual fidelity (quality) is influenced by auditory stimuli. Understanding exactly how our perception of visual fidelity changes in the presence of multimodal stimuli can potentially impact the design of virtual environments, thus creating more engaging virtual worlds and scenarios. Stereoscopic 3-D display technology provides the users with additional visual information (depth into and out of the screen plane). There have been relatively few studies that have investigated the impact that auditory stimuli have on our perception of visual fidelity in the presence of stereoscopic 3-D. Building on previous work, we examine the effect of auditory stimuli on our perception of visual fidelity within a stereoscopic 3-D environment.

Modeling the acoustics of an environment is a complex and challenging task. Here we describe the sonel mapping approach to acoustical rendering. Sonel mapping is a Monte-Carlo-based approach to modeling diffuse, specular, absorption and diffraction effects in an efficient manner. The approach models many of the subtle interaction effects required for realistic acoustical modeling, and the approach is computationally efficient allowing it to be used to acoustically model interactive virtual environments

We present a robust and portable visual-based skin and face detection system developed for use in a multiple speaker teleconferencing system, employing both audio and video cues. An omni-directional video sensor is used to provide a view of the entire visual hemisphere, thereby allowing for multiple dynamic views of all the participants. Regions of skin are detected using simple statistical methods, along with histogram color models for both skin and non-skin color classes. Regions of skin belonging to the same person are grouped together, and using simple spatial properties, the position of each person's face is inferred. Preliminary results suggest the system is capable of detecting human faces present in an omni-directional image despite the poor resolution inherent with such an omni-directional sensor.