Inspiration
There's a huge misconception that the deaf and hard of hearing can't enjoy music. They feel music through vibrations and derive the same joy from it as a hearing person would listening to music.
Video games are notoriously not accessible to everyone, including for the deaf and hard of hearing, as games rely on sound cues without the addition of visual cues or even closed captions.
There are a lot of social games that bring people together and create memories, and there are educational games that are fun but have little replay value after mastering knowledge. But can there be a social and educational video games that can bring the hearing and deaf/hard-of-hearing communities together in ways they haven't before?
That's why I came up with Rock Hand.
What it does
It takes all the fun and social elements of Rock Band, no longer requires hardware additions, and adds an educational twist. Instead of learning how to play various instruments, you learn how to sign various words curated from song lyrics while jamming to music we all love.
How we built it
I used Unity and C# to build the game. The sign language translation was done using opencv, mediapipe, and python (libraries).
Challenges we ran into
I started out with a team of 4 but ended up going solo (!) because the team disbanded. Consequently, there were time constraints for implementing everything desired, so I had to stick to the essentials.
One of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to unify two desired features into one cohesive product.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
I did it all - the design, the game, the pitch in a sleepless day's worth. I didn't give up!
What we learned
Don't quit - you never know what will happen. The experience is the experience - just live and learn and you'll be fine.
What's next for Rock Hand
Simply finesse - taking time to implement the entire interface in a less time constrained scenario.
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