User involvement in design and application of virtual reality gamification to facilitate the

use of hearing aids Harshada Patel, Sue Cobb,

Madeline Hallewell,

Mirabelle D’Cruz, Richard Eastgate

Human Factors Research Group, University of Nottingham, UK

Harshada.patel@nottingham.ac.uk

Lorenzo Picinali

Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College,

London, UK

picinali@imperial.ac.uk

Stefano Tamascelli

XTeam Software Solutions SRLS, Rovigo, Italy

tamascelli@xteamsoftware.com

On behalf of the 3D Tune-In project consortium: http://3d-tune-in.eu/

3D Tune-In

3D-games for Tuning and learning about Hearing Aids

EU Horizon2020 - Contract No 644051

www.3D-tune-in.eu

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The Problem

• Individuals don’t understand how to use digital hearing aids (HAs)

• Use them as if they were analogue HAs

• Don’t benefit from the functionality of digital HAs that could improve QoL

• Participatory design process, 3D Tune-In will create a Toolkit and a series of game applications to: • Enable end users to explore, review and customize HA devices for different usage scenarios

• Enable individuals with no hearing impairment to understand how hearing loss can compromise everyday activities and how a HA can improve this situation

• Enable HA providers to evaluate and demonstrate the functionalities of their products

• Enable gaming SMEs to explore new applications in the area of hearing loss and HA technology

Project structure

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Participatory design

• Stakeholder engagement: o Hearing aid end users o Professionals involved in the hearing aids or hearing impairments sector o Non HA users

• Identify current practice, problems and strategies

• Define future scenarios as a result of participative design

• Develop the structural model of 3DTI Toolkit including technical requirements

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Requirements analysis

• Five age groups

• 7-14 (1 UK, 1 Italy)

• 15-18 (1 Italy)

• 19-40 (1 UK, 2 Spain, 1 Italy)

• 41-60 (4 UK, 2 Spain)

• 61 and over (3 UK, 2 Spain)

• People with mild to severe hearing loss

• Users of BTE, ITE, ITC, CIC hearing aids and have an interest in technology

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Methods: Questionnaire

• Type of hearing problem • Type(s) of hearing aid(s) • Hearing aid functionalities used • Satisfaction with hearing • Experience of fittings/training with audiologist • Daily activities/hobbies • Types of situations where people would like to hear better • How often HAs are used in different everyday settings • Usability of HAs • Experience with playing digital games

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Methods: Paired interviews

• Contexts – school, home, shopping, restaurant/café, cinema, walking along a busy road, travel/transport

• Questions related to experiences whilst wearing HAs in terms of • amplification • understanding speech • quality • localization • ability to filter • communication • satisfaction • strategies • training

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Findings

Communication • Background noise • Not able to see person speaking to them • Inability to concentrate on more than one sound

Use of HAs

• Used limited number of settings • 8/18 aware of different settings available • 12/18 did not change settings at all (most times per day was 3) • Most people used main setting or volume

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Reasons for not changing HA settings

• Don’t make much difference

• Don’t know enough about other settings

• No need to change

• No motivation to change

• Not easy to use

• Don’t think they have access to additional features/settings

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Future Scenarios

Five future scenarios describe: • training goals of app • gamification • user interface requirements • game design • description of tasks for users • app’s transferable benefits Fallen

Angel

Hearing Aid Tuner

Dartanan

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Dartanan XTeam

Overview A mobile game for children with and without hearing loss to improve usage of HAs among children, and aid social inclusion.

Target Market Primary: Children with hearing loss (6-12yo) Secondary: Children without hearing loss (6-12yo)

Genre Simple platformer with mini-games

Platforms iOS and Android smartphones and tablets

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Main functionality

Mini-games • Aimed at improving understanding and

use of hearing aids amongst children • Still fun to play for non-hearing-aid users

Platformer game • Mario-style platformer

• collecting coins • defeating enemies

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Mini games: Fight in the dark

• Aim is to localise and defeat enemies only using sound • Enemy makes a sound • Player must correctly identify its position and attack • Incorrect guesses result in player losing some health

• Enemy sounds change in volume and frequency

• Mini-game is repeated multiple times throughout Dartanan, and gets progressively harder (addition of masking noises, multiple sources etc.)

• Reinforces habits for ensuring correct mode of hearing aid is set

• Player has opportunity to replay the mini-games at will

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrxuTy31bi0

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Next steps: evaluation

Equipment Mobile phones (Apple, Android), Nintendo DS, headphones (virtual HA)

Target groups Primary target: Children with/out hearing aids (6 – 12 years)

Secondary target: Families and friends

Evaluation 2 groups of children - ratio of 8 to 2 (children with HAs vs children without HAs), Focus groups

Recruitment University of Padova (Italy) to recruit children HA users Unott/ICL (UK) to recruit children through associations and local schools

Studies • Cycle 2 Jan/Feb, 2017: feedback and development Mar/Apr 2017 • Cycle 3 May/Jun, 2017: feedback and final development Jul 2017

Dartanan (XTeam, GN, ICL, UNott)

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Information + contacts

Participatory Design/Evaluation studies: Sue.cobb@nottingham.ac.uk Mirabelle.dcruz@nottingham.ac.uk Harshada.patel@nottingham.ac.uk

www.3D-tune-in.eu

Project Co-ordinator: picinali@imperial.ac.uk

Dartanan game developer: tamascelli@xteamsoftware.com

Thank you

Any questions?