You could call it one stop shopping. This is a video game known as Capable Shopper, but it's not just another form of entertainment. This program is designed to help the disabled accomplish everyday activities. It all started with a group of RPI students, who developed the program with the Center for the Disabled.
Zach Barth said, "We started with laying out what the constraints were and what the interface needed to have and then we just worked into developing it."
Arts Professor Kathleen Ruiz said, "We needed engineers, we needed computer science students, art students, and sound designers."
You could call it one stop shopping. This is a video game known as Capable Shopper, but it's not just another form of entertainment. This program is designed to help the disabled accomplish everyday activities. It all started with a group of RPI students, who developed the program with the Center for the Disabled.
And that pretty much makes up this team, whose project is officially known as the "Capability Games Research Project." The game simulates a shopping trip to a grocery store. The layout is based on actual blueprints from a local Price Chopper supermarket. One monitor simulates the layout, and the other displays a virtual shopping list. Users start the process by picking certain items through hand held controls, and complete it when they find all the items on the list.
Ruiz said, "A lot of people who are disabled are fearful about going out into the real world. We have all problems going shopping sometimes because it can be daunting, but for someone who's disabled it can be a real challenge."
There's even special head gear for one user, and she made it to the checkout just fine. The disabled users develop life skills with this program, but the students get something back out of their project as well.
Ruiz said, "I think they take away team skills working on an incredible project like this, helping other people, getting out of the ivory tower and moving into the real world."
And while shopping is a useful everyday task, there's other programs to come.
Ruiz said, "There's one for preparing a meal, there's one for personal hygiene, there's one for job interviewing skills, social skills."
Darren Domingos said, "We're responsible for a lot of the finishing touches, the polishing work, and we want to continue to work on this project as well as some of the projects in the future since we're going to be here for a while."
Developing life skills with a labor of love.