My current idea is to announce the heading in absolute degrees through speech upon request, and when refering to objects, allow for either of the following: view relative to the bow, where 5s means five degrees off starboard or to the right, or just view with relative course where something like mark 5 means +5 degrees. This is how it's handled in a submarine simulator game we have. As to processing of information, that's going to depend on the rate of speech and how compact the information is. I personally read at approximately 500 words per minute; some read slower, some read faster. The trick is going to be compacting the information enough that an average person would find it doable to manage all the info coming in at once. ----- Original Message ----- From: <netrek-dev-request at us.netrek.org> To: <netrek-dev at us.netrek.org> Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 1:00 PM Subject: netrek-dev Digest, Vol 42, Issue 4 > Send netrek-dev mailing list submissions to > netrek-dev at us.netrek.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://mailman.us.netrek.org/mailman/listinfo/netrek-dev > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > netrek-dev-request at us.netrek.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > netrek-dev-owner at us.netrek.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of netrek-dev digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: making netrek accessible for the blind (Ameer Armaly) > 2. Re: making netrek accessible for the blind (Zach Uram) > 3. Re: making netrek accessible for the blind (James Cameron) > 4. Re: making netrek accessible for the blind (Zach Uram) > 5. Re: making netrek accessible for the blind (Mark Mielke) > 6. Re: making netrek accessible for the blind (Zach Uram) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 13:47:23 -0400 > From: "Ameer Armaly" <ameer_armaly at hotmail.com> > Subject: Re: [netrek-dev] making netrek accessible for the blind > To: <netrek-dev at us.netrek.org> > Message-ID: <BAY116-DAV173D291CC0D566BAFC056E4790 at phx.gbl> > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; > reply-type=original > > Interesting. I'll have a look at this Python client; otherwise the best > bet > may be to role my own from scratch. My intent is to combine stario sound > with screen readers or other speech technologies in order to communicate > the > relevant information to the player. > For what it's worth, here are my current ideas based on my study of the > game > as well as similar accessible games. These are naturally subject to change > based on future results. If you have any thoughts, I would appreciate > hearing them. > 1. Torpedos: Indicate their angle through stario position, and distance > through any or all of pitch, rate of beeping, and volume. > 2. Other ships: Indicate their angle through stario position. Indicate > size > via different sounds for each. Indicate distance through volume. Indicate > team through a view command that speaks it as well as all of the above. > 3. Tracking: provide a means to track any object so that it's angle > relative > to the player's ship and distance are updated regularly through speech. > Provide a means to calculate a firing solution of some sort as well. > 4. Planets: Identify planets primarily through speech. Indicate orbit > through speech as well. Indicate bombing through sounds and indicate > progress through speech. > 5. Messaging: Precede reading of the message with a sound, and provide a > nice pop-up window to type in custom messages. > Thanks to everyone for your advice. I will keep you all informed of any > progress I make. > Thanks, > > Ameer > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 15:59:50 -0400 > From: "Zach Uram" <netrek at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [netrek-dev] making netrek accessible for the blind > To: "Netrek Development Mailing List" <netrek-dev at us.netrek.org> > Message-ID: > <ecfa260c0808031259raec751dl4c2f200dc865a7d7 at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Hi Ameer, > > I am curious how you plan to let the player know their heading; that > is which direction their ship is pointing. I suppose maybe inform them > when game starts they are at 12 o'clock and then every time they > change direction say something like "now heading 3 o'clock" or you > could use degrees or radians. I'm also wondering how the player will > know where each planet is, the planet's name and how many armies it > has? For the team message board you could use text to speech > translator but if there is a lot of chatter will the player be able to > process those messages plus the navigation and other sounds > concurrently? > > Zach > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 09:44:48 +1000 > From: James Cameron <quozl at us.netrek.org> > Subject: Re: [netrek-dev] making netrek accessible for the blind > To: Netrek Development Mailing List <netrek-dev at us.netrek.org> > Message-ID: <20080803234448.GA11213 at us.netrek.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > It may not be necessary to reveal heading, if all other sources of > information are made relative to current heading. > > However, this will make communication slightly more difficult, since > players using absolute heading clients will use up, down, left and > right, despite the availability of coordinate rotation feature by the > clients. > > That is to say, in a Romulan (top left) versus Federation (bottom left) > game, some players on the Federation side use "move up" to mean approach > the front, and on the Romulan side use "move down" to mean the same > thing. > > A client that uses relative heading will improve communication, perhaps. > > -- > James Cameron mailto:quozl at us.netrek.org http://quozl.netrek.org/ > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 20:53:36 -0400 > From: "Zach Uram" <netrek at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [netrek-dev] making netrek accessible for the blind > To: "Netrek Development Mailing List" <netrek-dev at us.netrek.org> > Message-ID: > <ecfa260c0808031753t594bd898h9f8206b7103d2edd at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > On Sun, Aug 3, 2008 at 7:44 PM, James Cameron <quozl at us.netrek.org> wrote: >> It may not be necessary to reveal heading, if all other sources of >> information are made relative to current heading. > [...] > > Ah I see. Another idea I had was breaking the game board up into > uniform squares and then specify heading that way. Besides navigation > it could be used to identify enemy and friendly ships. Needless to say > such a client will have to be borg to give the needed functionality > but I think playing netrek sightless is enough of a challenge so I > for one would notr dare begrude them borg features. You could also > specify velocity so a player might here "F2 warp 9 sector 3,2", with > stereo you could use one channel for navigation and weapon alerts and > the other for team messages etc. > > Zach > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:27:51 -0400 > From: Mark Mielke <mark at mark.mielke.cc> > Subject: Re: [netrek-dev] making netrek accessible for the blind > To: Netrek Development Mailing List <netrek-dev at us.netrek.org> > Message-ID: <48965B17.6070705 at mark.mielke.cc> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Zach Uram wrote: >> Ah I see. Another idea I had was breaking the game board up into >> uniform squares and then specify heading that way. Besides navigation >> it could be used to identify enemy and friendly ships. Needless to say >> such a client will have to be borg to give the needed functionality >> but I think playing netrek sightless is enough of a challenge so I >> for one would notr dare begrude them borg features. You could also >> specify velocity so a player might here "F2 warp 9 sector 3,2", with >> stereo you could use one channel for navigation and weapon alerts and >> the other for team messages etc. >> > > Hey in softball there is a "pinch hitter". Why not be able to give > directions to a tactical officer that happens to be automated? :-) > > As long as the tactical officer is not TOO good... :-) > > Cheers, > mark > > -- > Mark Mielke <mark at mielke.cc> > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 6 > Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 22:10:12 -0400 > From: "Zach Uram" <netrek at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [netrek-dev] making netrek accessible for the blind > To: "Netrek Development Mailing List" <netrek-dev at us.netrek.org> > Message-ID: > <ecfa260c0808031910v2ee8b375le8c67f3561ef9eae at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > On Sun, Aug 3, 2008 at 9:27 PM, Mark Mielke <mark at mark.mielke.cc> wrote: >> >> Hey in softball there is a "pinch hitter". Why not be able to give >> directions to a tactical officer that happens to be automated? :-) >> >> As long as the tactical officer is not TOO good... :-) > > Hey that is a good idea :-) Yeah don't want it to be hyper borg, but > take the Iggy code and modify it or start from scratch. > > Zach > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > netrek-dev mailing list > netrek-dev at us.netrek.org > http://mailman.us.netrek.org/mailman/listinfo/netrek-dev > > > End of netrek-dev Digest, Vol 42, Issue 4 > ***************************************** >