No Barriers to Fun!

We met our friend Giddeon at the AbleGamers Accessibility Arcade in Atlantic City, New Jersey. When he first sat down with the AbleGamers crew, Giddeon didn't want to play any games. He told us that with his disability gaming was difficult. Giddeon has a rare disease that caused the growth of his arms .. Read More
A Window to the World

Shepherd University invited the AbleGamers Foundation to come on campus and do one of our Accessibility Arcades for the students and local disabled community. The event was a roaring success with hundreds of children and adults coming out to see the technology and in some cases experience gaming the first time. Read More

About the AbleGamers Foundation

Since 2004, the AbleGamers Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity, has served more than 56 million members of the disabled community by advocating greater access in video games. Today, AbleGamers is a leader in the development of equipment, programs and services to those living with disabilities, hardships, and quality-of-life issues that are a result of chronic illness or trauma. It is our goal to ensure that all people, regardless of their disability, can use gaming as a tool to have enriched social experiences with friends, family, and the world at large.

Take the YOU out of game play

Written by Mark C. Barlet

Published on 23 November 2008

I'm sure I'm not the only person who is received a /tell or a random e-mail in my MMORPG inbox about a service is so great that can' possibly see how I could ever live without it, for a mere $200 I could pay someone to play the game for me! Yah, gone are the days that I am forced to enjoy the content provided to me by said game maker in those pesky levels between one and fifty.

That is all well and good, the nature of an MMORPG allows you to hand your account information over anybody with a client installed, and yes they can in fact play the game for you. Now, you may be asking yourself, "But Mark, I don't play MMO RPG's. I'm all about the console game, and I can't get enough Rock Band. Well HAZZAAA, your day has come; the good people at Cythbot have created a robot that will play Rock Band for you. No more pesky looking at the screen in trying to figure out which button to push, because this awesome robot uses his camera to determine what buttons to push with cold, steel, robotic precision, at the appropriate time. So that you can just rock out, and stared in amazement as once again, you playing a game does not necessarily have to involve you!

But Seriously from Wired Blog

Guitar Hero kicking your butt after one too many beers? Maybe it's time to automate your gameplay â€” with a robot guitar god, the Cythbot.
The Cythbot combines a camera with a vision processing system and pneumatic fingers to create a robot that can play the popular Guitar Hero videogame by itself.

The Cythbot is not a humanoid robot but instead a collection of components cleverly patched together to create an automated device that can read the notes flowing on a screen and play them â€” mimicking what a gamer would do with the game.

Since its launch in 2005, video game publisher Activision's Guitar Hero series has become a blockbuster hit. The game comes with a guitar-shaped peripheral that players have to strum in sync to the notes flowing on a screen. Players are judged based on the accuracy with which they hit the notes.

The Cythbot does the same. Here's how Cyth Systems set up the robot:

First, a camera from Pixelink looks at a screen to analyze the notes that are flowing in.

It is also hooked up to a compact vision processing system, which is hooked up to a box called the Configurable Signal Conditioning Enclosure (CA-1000) from National Instruments. The CA-1000 is capable of digital signal processing and can increase the level of the input signal up to 24 volts. The stepped-up signal is used to operate the pneumatics for the guitar.