[emacspeak The Complete Audio Desktop] Playing SuDoKu Using Auditory Feedback

["T. V. Raman" <noreply-comment@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Emacspeak speech-enables SuDoKu implemented by sudoku.el. Speech-enabling games is an effective means of discovering what additions one needs to make to an auditory interface for working effectively in an eyes-free environment --- this was aptly demonstrated a few years ago by identifying interesting conversational gestures by speech-enabling the game of Tetris --- see Conversational Gestures For The Audio Desktop from Assets 1998.

Advicing Interactive Commands

As with speech-enabling any Emacs module, emacspeak-sudoku advices all interactive commands to produce spoken feedback. In addition to speaking the cell moved to, all navigation commands produce an auditory icon that is a function of whether the cell value is mutable --- original values cannot be changed and this is indicated with a distinctive icon.

Additional Interactive Commands

Playing SuDoKu effectively requires one to build a good mental image of the state of the board as well as the ability to effectively query the game for currently active constraints. The eye's ability to quickly move around the board and perceive row, column and sub-square constraints needs to be compensated for in an eyes-free environment. As an example, it is too difficult to build the necessary mental model by just listening to the board spoken aloud, or by listening to idnividual cells by navigating to them.

Here are the set of additional interactive commands that needed to be added in order to be able to play the game effectively.

r

Speak current row.

c

Speak current column

s

Speak current sub-square.

R

Speak number of remaining cells in current row.

C

Speak number of remaining cells in current column.

S

Speak number of remaining cells in current sub-square.

d

Move to the sub-square below the current sub-square.

u

Move to the sub-square above the current sub-square.

n

Move to the next sub-square.

p

Move to the previous sub-square.

a

Move to the beginning of current row.

e

Move to the end of the current row.

t

Move to the top of the current column.

b

Move to the bottom of the current column.

,

Speaks information about the overall distribution of numbers on the board.

• d --- Conveys how many instances of each digit have been filled in.
• s --- Conveys number of remaining cells in each sub-square.
• r --- Conveys number of remaining cells in each row.
• c --- Conveys number of remaining cells in each column.

/

Speaks number of remaining cells in the current board.

.

Speaks value in current cell.

Notes on how invormation is spoken:

• Numbers are spoken in groups of 3 to achieve effective intonation.
• When navigating by sub-squares, point always moves to the top left corner of the sub-square.
• Additional commands bound to M-r, M-c and M-s erase the current row, column or sub-square respectively. These commands would probably be convenient to have independent of whether one is using visual output.

Effectiveness Of The Resulting Interface

With the above interface in place, the simpler levels of the game are a breeze, levels difficult and evil are sufficiently challenging to be fun.

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Posted by T. V. Raman to emacspeak The Complete Audio Desktop at 2/11/2006 06:04:52 PM

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