Sources and planning

Results from literature research

After conducting a vast literature research, a brief summary of all articles and patents deemed relevant has been made. These summaries are listed below.

Preparation in and use of the Nemeth braille code for mathematics by teachers of students with visual impairments
This paper describes a study about the use of the Nemeth braille code. 135 teachers, that have followed a course in Nemeth code and teach visually impaired students, were observed. Also a survey was conducted to learn about the current state of Nemeth code usage in the United States.

Digital Games in Education: The Design of Games-Based Learning Environments
This paper examines the evolution of how videogames are designed. From that the characteristics of game-based learning are analyzed. Remaining obstacles and challenges concerning the use of games for learning are discussed. Several types benefits that videogames can offer are listed as well as the use of game-based learning in school.

AudioMath: blind children learning mathematics through audio
In this paper the design, development and usability of AudioMath are presented. AudioMath is a virtual environment that communicates to the user via sound. The goal is to help blind children develop a better short-term memory and to assist them in learning mathematics. The software was tested for its usability and the results are presented.

Science Learning by Blind Children through Audio-Based Interactive Software
Initiated due to the lack of science-oriented software for the blind, this paper presents software designed to teach blind children about science-oriented subjects. The software is heavily based on audio to communicate to the children. The learning of science and the impact on cognitive skills of using such software was researched and its results are presented.

Teaching science to visually impaired students
This paper examines how blind people are currently being thought about science and what needs to be improved to allow blind people to learn better about scientific subjects. Interviews and observations were conducted and from this data conclusions were presented and implications were discussed.

Development of navigation skills through audio haptic videogaming in learners who are blind
This study discusses the implementation of an audio haptic maze game, in which children aged 10 to 15 are tasked with navigating through a maze. The study discussed the combination of audio and haptic interfaces, and concluded that they together more than complemented each other. This is something that we should make note of, if we want to create a game to which blind children can easily adapt.

VBGhost: a Braille-Based Educational Smartphone Game for Children
The authors discuss their newly developed game for smartphones, VBGhost, bases on the game ghost in which players take turns adding letters to a word fragment. The letters are entered in braille, with a 3 by 2 braille cell presented on the screen. Players can raise or lower these dots by double tapping on them. If a dot is raised and a player taps on it, the phone vibrates. The app also includes a high contrast menu, meaning that people with low vision can also read the interface.

Virtual Mobile Science Learning for Blind People
This paper discusses AudioNature, an audio-based interface for pocketPC. It is designed to assist in science learning. The device uses an audio interface to transmit information to the user, and takes input in the form of buttons and a touch screen. One striking feature of this method is that it enables the user to use while moving. Many devices for blind people, the author notes, are made to be used in a static position. Focusing on mobility will help blind people to freer in their movements, and will ultimately lead to better integration with society.

MathMelodies: Inclusive Design of a Didactic Game to Practice Mathematics
With the introduction of tablets in an educational environment, a gaming or entertaining atmosphere can be created in which children learn new concepts. However, these games are mostly visually oriented. This paper describes a game which teaches basic arithmetic through sound. Most of the exercises are read out loud, and also how to answer them is explained. To keep the user entertained, a variety of sounds are added, a rating system based on the number of errors made and a storyline is added. The authors describe that teachers have reacted enthusiastically to this game.

Game-based Learning: Latest Evidence and Future Directions
This article describes the exact nature of game-based learning, and lists the evidence to support commonly made claims about it. It describes in a more abstract manner the principles which go behind game-based learning, and the mechanics with which it tries to adhere to these. Interesting is the following conclusion: “Don’t try to divorce decontextualized components of a game (such as badges, scores or leaderboards) from the fictional context and rules of the game (the ‘mechanics’). Using badges and medals can work for certain simple tasks, but actual game-based learning will require using those techniques in the context of rule-sets and role-playing.”

Auditory Augmentations of Haptic Graphs: Developing a Graphic Tool for Teaching Precalculus Skill to Blind Students
This paper discusses the development of a graphic tool to assist in the teaching of pre-calculus skills to blind people. It looks at existing and on-going developments of instruments to assist blind students with basic mathematics, i.e. examine and explore data and abstract graphs. The paper also looks at auditory and haptic stimuli to present mathematical information. The end goal is to provide a readily usable tool for blind students to learn mathematics.

Issues and Aids for Teaching Mathematics to the Blind
This article looks at the difficulties for blind people to learn mathematics. It also discusses some tools that are available to help these students in their efforts to learn mathematics. It gives a list of resources that help the blind and visually impaired. The article also briefly looks at what might be available in the future to assist the students.

Methods for Presenting Braille Characters on a Mobile Device with a Touchscreen and Tactile Feedback
In this paper three interaction methods were designed for reading six-dot Braille on a mobile device. To do this a prototype device with a piezoelectric actuator embedded under the touchscreen was used to create tactile feedback. The three methods were scan, sweep and rhythm. All of these methods proved successful to convey information.

The Effects of Modern Math Computer Games on Learners’ Math Achievement and Math Course Motivation in a Public High School Setting
This paper looks at the effects of mathematical video games to assist the teaching of mathematics to students. The results show that students who played the video game scored significantly higher of a math benchmark exam. Teachers and students supported the results in interviews.

From dots to shapes: An auditory haptic game platform for teaching geometry to blind pupils
This paper describes an auditory platform based on three classic games, Simon, Point Connecting and concentration game, for blind and visually impaired students. The tool is based on sonic and haptic interaction, and therefore could be used by special educators as a help for teaching planar geometry.

"Learn Braille": A Serious Game Mobile App for sighted Braille Learners
This article describes a mobile learning tool designed to learn sighted people braille. It also contains the game ‘hangman’ to provide a competitive way to keep learning. The teacher is able to select the vowels and words that are taught during the lesson. The app supports both Greek and English braille.

The Today and Tomorrow of Braille Learning
This article mainly elaborates on the decreasing literacy for people using braille due to the use of modern technology. The motivation to learn braille has decreased. It highlighted the problems with existing technology and provided ways in which the situation can be improved. The article was mainly based on interviews with blind people.

Students' attitude towards the use of educational video games to develop competencies
As the study suggests, described in this paper, students' positive attitude towards the use of educative games cannot be taken for granted. Four students' characteristics (perceived relevance, perceived confidence, media affinity, and perceived self-efficacy) influence their attitude towards the games. Relevance is not related only to the content being learned but also to the way the content is taught. Confidence is an important motivational driver which can influence learners' persistence and accomplishment. Media affinity is how, in this case, important games are for the students. Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief on his/her ability to achieve a desired outcome.

BraillePlay: Educational Smartphone Games for Blind Children
The conclusion of this article was that children were not easily motivated in playing a simple game for an extended amount of time. The article described four different games like hangman and ghost. For children learning braille these games proved difficult due to their limited vocabulary. The games where apps running on a smartphone. The article also names a few ways in which braille can be displayed on a smartphone.

Design and Usability of a Braille-based Mobile Audio game Environment
This article describes multiple games that could be implemented for educational purposes. The games use a GBraille keyboard, which is a way to allow a user to type in braille on their smartphone. The interviews with teachers expressed a concern with the keyboard. Using the keyboard gives a wrong impression of braille since real braille uses raised dots instead of vibrations.

TDraw: A Computer-Based Tactile Drawing Tool for Blind People
The article provides a lot of information on the theory that blind people have the ability to create a mental 3D model of the world around them. This leads to the belief that blind people can draw provided the tools for it and for that reason the research is about a computer tool that would allow blind people to do drawings and graphical work.

Blind Hero: Enabling Guitar Hero for the Visually Impaired
This article explains how certain games can be very effectively played by blind people. Games such as Guitar Hero which include rhythm, patterns, sound and vibration in their core system can be adjusted to be suitable for blind people. The article explains about how that is accomplished.

Designing Haptic Computer Interfaces for Blind People
This article gives information about how interfaces for computer programs are made, when intended for blind people. The article provides information on how interfaces for normal people differ from interfaces for blind people and focuses on haptic computer interfaces.

JustSpeak: Enabling Universal Voice Control on Android
This article provides information on voice command control for smartphones, more specifically about Android platforms. It talks more specifically about the JustSpeak, a solution that makes everything on an Android platform operable by voice commands, by automatically constructing the set of available voice commands based on application context. These commands are directly synthesized from on-screen labels and accessibility metadata, and require no further intervention from the application developer. Second, it provides more efficient and natural interaction with support of multiple voice commands in the same utterance.

Designing Mobile Apps for Visually Impaired and Blind Users
This article provides information on the different ways and methods with which applications that are made specifically or with the addition of blind people controls and assistance. overall it points out that iOS is the most commonly used as it makes use of the many features such as voice navigation that iPhones and other apple products provide.

Designing Haptic Graphics for Mathematics: Towards Accessible Math Education for Blind Students

Planning

Below is a shown the planning. If a cell is colored green, it means that the task presented in the same row should be done in the week of the same column. In red are shown the milestones (Please click on the image to view in the highest resolution).