“We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.”
Marshall McLuhan
Gaming Assistive Technology
Let’s call it GAT! As in rat-a-tat-tat-tat.
There is an interesting series of progressive articles and videos by Phaelia over at the blog site The Dreamgrove.
Hands-Free Gaming in a WoW Universe has this player excited for several reasons. One of the main reasons is that, by watching Phaelia in action, I can imagine this technology folding back into the main-stream. Meaning, a player like myself who uses his hands, can easily see the advantages of voice commands and more.
Watch the quick voice commands to move the camera section in her video here on her blog or here on YouTube. Don’t you feel some envy?
How fun would it be to chortle with power, “Mount up, mighty hero!”
How about growling, “Unleash Hell” and all your spells unload on a boss?
I have Comcast cable with the new remote that you see in commercials. Voice Recognition has come a very long way because it can understand “Weather Channel” when my mouth is full of pepperoni pizza!
Finally, I have a soft spot in my heart for this entire area. My Dad was an educator in Special Education and I remember the day he came home very excited. He had finally been allowed into Sandia Special Weapons Lab to talk to the research guys and the scientists about how their advancements (for war) could cross-over to handicapped assistive technology. This was decades ago, of course.
Phaelia’s solutions in this journey is amazing to a layman like myself. Clearly, not all addons for game-play are fancy keyboards or a 15 button mouse.
Coffee Cakes and Crits 