Pet-N-Punch: Upper Body Tactile/Audio Exergame to Engage Children with Visual Impairments into Physical Activity

摘要

Individuals with visual impairments have significantly higher levels of obesity and often exhibit delays in motor development, caused by a general lack of opportunities to be physically active. Tactile/audio based exergames that only involve motions of the dominant arm have been successfully explored to engage individuals with visual impairments into physical activity. This paper presents an accessi ble exergame called Pet-N-Punch that can be played using one or two arms. A user study with 12 children who were blind showed that they were able to achieve light to moderate physical activity, but no significant difference in energy expenditure was detected between both versions. The two arm version had a significantly higher error rate than the one arm version, which shows that the two arm version has a significantly higher cognitive load. Players were found to be able to respond to tactile/audio cues within 2500ms.