A screenshot of a terrain map in the Unity game engine. Dots show points of interest on the map, and a line connecting some of them shows the journey of a player. A timer showing 75 seconds shows the time into the player jounrey.
A Powerpoint presentation projected on a screen in a classroom. The key text content reads: 'Luke Child (He/Him) - PhD Researcher in the affordances of sonic interaction in designing accessible navigation and narrative experiences in virtual video game environments. Supervised by Dr Natanya Ford and Dr Tom Mitchell.

Research areas

A Powerpoint presentation projected on a screen in a classroom. The key text content reads: 'Luke Child (He/Him) - PhD Researcher in the affordances of sonic interaction in designing accessible navigation and narrative experiences in virtual video game environments. Supervised by Dr Natanya Ford and Dr Tom Mitchell.

My research focuses on auditory navigation in open world video games for Blind and Low Vision acccessibility. I'm investigating ways to sonify navigation and environment information in virtual environments and how we commuicate this information to gamers to design accessible gameplay systems around it.

One of the biggest barriers for Blind and Low Vision gamers is being able to independently navigate virtual world spaces, not just functionally, but enjoyably, too. As such, I'm building systems that not only try to prioritise successful navigation, but also facilitate the curiousity and excitement found in many open world adventures found in virtual game environments.

Publications

A close up photo of Luke pouting his lips and holding his glasses with one hand like a smart person.

I've published a couple of papers in my time which you can read in different formats here:

Title of Publication Link to Official Publication Preprint PDF Preprint HTML
A systematic review of reverberation and accessibility for B/blind users in virtual environments Link to Paper on Audio Engineering Society Website Link to PDF on Research Group Website Link to Paper as a HTML webpage
Towards an audio attribute framework for understanding the perception of reverberant spaces through elicitation and clustering methods based on participant expectation Link to Paper on Audio Engineering Society Website Link to PDF of Paper Link to Paper as a HTML webpage
A close up photo of Luke pouting his lips and holding his glasses with one hand like a smart person.
An Arduino, a MIDI Keyboard and various cables plugged into an iMac computer running VCV Rack.

Teaching

An Arduino, a MIDI Keyboard and various cables plugged into an iMac computer running VCV Rack.

I also teach alongside my research! My teaching tends to be in the areas of HCI, game audio design and programming, audio programming, HCI and research methods/project supervision. I strive to create inclsuive spaces for progressive and awesome discussions and practice. I employ dialogic teaching practice and collaboration to make sure students get the best chance to apply and develop their skills as people. And obviously, I drop in good discussion around inclusive design and accessibility throughout all I do.