I was involved in the design an development of Intersection Adventure, an orientation and mobility (O&M) training game for blind and visually impaired youths in conjunction with the California School for the Blind. It's designed to test and strengthen the player's auditory localization. For example, at one point in traditional O&M training, the trainee is asked to move their head to face a car as it goes by while they stand on the sidewalk alongside a street. The image on this page shows myself and teammate Luyao Zhao attempting this training ourselves with a professional O&M trainer at the California School for the Blind.

 

As this process involves bringing blind and visually impaired individuals into the real world in potentially dangerous areas like loud road intersections, we figured that a VR simulation would be a safe alternative. Because this game is made for the sight-impaired, there are no visuals in the game whatsoever. The VR functionality is instead used for headtracking and localized audio.

​

Worked with Ruonan Chen, Yanjiao Liu, Ruizhe Tang, and Luyao Zhao.

Click here to download the game (for Android phones).

1. Import to an Android cell phone.

2. Connect the cell phone with a game controller(PlayStation 4 or Xbox One work natively) and plug in your earbuds.

3. Put the cell phone inside a headset and strap to your head

4. Start the game on your cell phone and enjoy!

​

Click here to read our report.