The BBC is reporting that IBM students in Ireland are working to create a solution whereby the blind can access and experience virtual worlds -- they've designed audio technology that uses "3D sound" to create a sense of space. Their work is part of the Extreme Blue research initiative which brings groups of students together for 12 weeks to solve a problem set by senior researchers.

According to the article:

The project - called Accessibility In Virtual Worlds - is what the company describes as "a proof of concept" at this stage, but it will be passed on to IBM's Human Ability and Accessibility Centre in Texas for further development.

For their work the Irish team decided to use the Active Worlds online environment rather than the more popular Second Life (which has almost 9.5m accounts) because it allowed them more flexibility.

As the article notes, Active Worlds is comprised largely of user-contributed content, which made it ideal for the students to experiment within the world. "When the user comes into the world, the items are described as well as their positions," researcher Colm O'Brien told the BBC. "There is also sound attached - for example, if there's a tree nearby you will hear a rustling of leaves," said Mr O'Brien.

Text-to-speech software also played a role in the research, reading chat from avatars out loud from their text boxes. The research also found success by attaching "sonars" to user avatars so that the blind can determine the proximity, direction and rate of approach from others.

The research team received feedback from blind mentors -- one in IBM's Dublin lab and two based in the company's Texas research center, and also worked with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland. The research proved that the concept of equipping virtual worlds for use by the blind is feasible, and the team made recommendations and set accessibility standards.

"IBM believes that virtual worlds are going to be the next big evolution of the web and if this happens... it's not right for blind people to be missing out on what the rest of us have available," O'Brien said.