| Web Analytics: The New Purpose towards Predictive Mobile Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-13 | |
| Mathew Burns; Martin Colbert | |||
| Web Analytics have been confined to an iterative process of collecting
online traffic data for the purpose of drawing conclusions. This research
presents a concept where internet usage traffic can be predicted against
through the means of a mobile game. Through investigating certain industries
use and perceptions of playfulness certain aspects are identified for the
design and development of the game. Using a usability based methodology for
evaluative testing these features are questioned amongst two distinctive
versions. From these, the feasibility of a mobile game and its playfulness for
users is gauged. The research leaves the concept considering what other
contexts web analytics can be used within. Keywords: Web Analytics; mobile games; serious games; prediction; usability;
prediction markets; spread betting; playfulness | |||
| An Author-Centric Approach to Procedural Content Generation | | BIBA | Full-Text | 14-28 | |
| Rui Craveirinha; Lucas Santos; Licínio Roque | |||
| This paper describes an alternative approach for videogame procedural content generation focused on providing authors direct control on what gameplay ensues from the generated content. An architecture is proposed that allows designers to define, beforehand, target gameplay indicators, and then generates content for an existing base-design that achieves those same indicators in actual gameplay sessions with human players. Besides providing a description of this architecture, a trial intent on giving evidence of the approach's feasibility is presented. This experiment used an altered version of 'Infinite Mario Bros.' level generator, built to evolve design parameters so as to achieve 3 target gameplay indicators. Employing a Genetic Algorithm in generation of new parameter values, and using 25 players to test the end results, the platform was able to generate parameters that achieved, with precision, the values for those indicators. This result provides evidence of the approach's feasibility, hinting at its potential use for real-life design processes. | |||
| Providing Adaptive Visual Interface Feedback in Massively Multiplayer Online Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 29-44 | |
| Chris Deaker; Masood Masoodian; Bill Rogers | |||
| Massively multiplayer online role-playing games typically feature rich and
complex game environments to provide more engaging game-play experiences. The
complexity of the underlying system in such games can however result in
increased complexity of their interfaces, which may diminish player enjoyment
-- a major element of players' game experience. Players may customise their
in-game interfaces to deal with this type of complexity and hence improve their
performance, but the challenges associated with manual interface customisation
may prevent some players from effectively personalising their own game
interface. In this paper we present an adaptive feedback system with a visual
interface component, which dynamically provides the player with a list of
predicted actions they are likely to take, in order to simplify the game
interface and improve players' game experience. We also report on the outcomes
of a user evaluation of this system which demonstrate the potential value of
adaptive user interfaces in game design. Keywords: Adaptive game interfaces; visual interface feedback; feedback visualisation;
massively multiplayer online games; user evaluation | |||
| Persuasive Elements in Videogames: Effects on Player Performance and Physiological State | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 45-60 | |
| Luís Duarte; Luís Carriço | |||
| This paper presents an exploration into the effects of specific types of
persuasive technology in videogames according to a performance and a
physiological perspective. Persuasive mechanisms are often employed to change
the behavior of a determined person during a known time frame. In videogames,
these approaches are expected to produce results in a more limited time window
especially concerning the player's performance. Literature regarding how this
type of persuasive mechanisms affects a user during a game is scarce. We
conducted a set of experiments with different games, on distinct platforms and
with thirty individuals per experimental period. Results suggest that different
persuasive techniques can effectively be used to improve or decrease player
performance as well as to regulate physiological state. We provide a detailed
analysis of these results along with a thorough discussion regarding the design
implications and opportunities of these findings and how they are related with
existing literature in the area. Keywords: Persuasive Interfaces; Deception; Videogames | |||
| Evaluating Human-like Behaviors of Video-Game Agents Autonomously Acquired with Biological Constraints | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 61-76 | |
| Nobuto Fujii; Yuichi Sato; Hironori Wakama; Koji Kazai; Haruhiro Katayose | |||
| Designing the behavioral patterns of video game agents (Non-player
character: NPC) is a crucial aspect in developing video games. While various
systems that have aimed at automatically acquiring behavioral patterns have
been proposed and some have successfully obtained stronger patterns than human
players, those patterns have looked mechanical. When human players play video
games together with NPCs as their opponents/supporters, NPCs' behavioral
patterns have not only to be strong but also to be human-like. We propose the
autonomous acquisition of NPCs' behaviors, which emulate the behaviors of human
players. Instead of implementing straightforward heuristics, the behaviors are
acquired using techniques of reinforcement learning with Q-Learning and
pathfinding through an A* algorithm, where biological constraints are imposed.
Human-like behaviors that imply human cognitive processes were obtained by
imposing sensory error, perceptual and motion delay, physical fatigue, and
balancing between repetition and novelty as the biological constraints in
computational simulations using "Infinite Mario Bros.". We evaluated human-like
behavioral patterns through subjective assessments, and discuss the possibility
of implementing the proposed system. Keywords: Autonomously strategy acquisition; Machine learning; Biological constraints;
Video game agent; Infinite Mario Bros | |||
| Comparing Game User Research Methodologies for the Improvement of Level Design in a 2-D Platformer | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 77-92 | |
| Marcello Andres Gómez Maureira; Dirk P. Janssen; Stefano Gualeni; Michelle Westerlaken; Licia Calvi | |||
| In this paper we compare the effects of using three game user research
methodologies to assist in shaping levels for a 2-D platformer game, and
illustrate how the use of such methodologies can help level designers to make
more informed decisions in an otherwise qualitative oriented design process.
Game user interviews, game metrics and psychophysiology (biometrics) were
combined in pairs to gauge usefulness in small-scale commercial game
development scenarios such as the casual game industry. Based on the
recommendations made by the methods, three sample levels of a Super Mario clone
were improved and the opinions of a second sample of users indicated the
success of these changes. We conclude that user interviews provide the clearest
indications for improvement among the considered methodologies while metrics
and biometrics add different types of information that cannot be obtained
otherwise. Keywords: Games; Games User Research; Quality Assurance; User Testing; Level Design;
Platformer; Game Industry; Casual Games; Combined Methodologies; Biometrics;
Physiological Measures | |||
| Touch Me, Tilt Me -- Comparing Interaction Modalities for Navigation in 2D and 3D Worlds on Mobiles | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 93-108 | |
| Wolfgang Hürst; Hector Cunat Nunez | |||
| Different modalities, such as tilting or touch screen gestures, can be used
to navigate 2D and 3D virtual worlds on handheld mobile devices. There are
however few studies so far investigating the characteristics of these
interaction modes, although it is important to be aware of individual
advantages and disadvantages when creating real immersive interaction
experiences. We present an experiment comparing different ways to navigate 2D
and 3D virtual worlds on handheld mobile devices. In a comparative study, a
total of 48 test subjects solve navigation tasks in 2D and 3D environments
using different interaction modalities, in particular: touch gestures, an
on-screen joypad implementation, and tilting gestures. Our results reveal
important characteristics of the individual interaction modes and provide
insight that is relevant for better interface design for virtual reality
interaction on mobiles. Keywords: Mobile interaction; mobile user interfaces; mobile virtual reality; mobile
3D; navigation in virtual reality | |||
| Virtual Robotization of the Human Body via Data-Driven Vibrotactile Feedback | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 109-122 | |
| Yosuke Kurihara; Taku Hachisu; Katherine J. Kuchenbecker; Hiroyuki Kajimoto | |||
| Worlds of science fiction frequently involve robotic heroes composed of
metallic parts. Although these characters exist only in the realm of fantasy,
many of us would be interested in becoming them, or becoming like them.
Therefore, we developed a virtual robotization system that provides a
robot-like feeling to the human body not only by using a visual display and
sound effects, but also by rendering a robot's haptic vibration to the user's
arm. The vibrotactile stimulus was recorded using real robot actuation and
modeled using linear predictive coding (LPC). We experimentally confirmed that
the subjective robot-like feeling was significantly increased by combining the
robot-vibration feedback with a robot-joint animation and creaking sound
effects. Keywords: Body Sense; Material; Robotization; Vibrotactile Feedback | |||
| BOLLOCKS!! Designing Pervasive Games That Play with the Social Rules of Built Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 123-137 | |
| Conor Linehan; Nick Bull; Ben Kirman | |||
| We propose that pervasive games designed with mechanics that are
specifically in opposition with, or disruptive of, social rules of the
environment in which they are played, have unique potential to provide
interesting, provocative experiences for players. We explore this concept
through the design and evaluation of an experimental game prototype, Shhh!,
inspired by the juvenile game Bollocks, and implemented on Android mobile
devices, which challenges players to make loud noises in libraries. Six
participants played the game before engaging in semi-structured interviews,
explored through inductive thematic analysis. Results suggest that the game
provoked in players a heightened awareness of social rules, as well as a
complex social dilemma of whether or not to act. We conclude by presenting a
model for designing games that play with the social, as well as physical, rules
of the environments in which they are set. Keywords: Pervasive Games; Social rules; Social Context; Unwritten rules; Non-players;
Critical Games | |||
| Cuddly: Enchant Your Soft Objects with a Mobile Phone | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 138-151 | |
| Suzanne Low; Yuta Sugiura; Kevin Fan; Masahiko Inami | |||
| Cuddly is a mobile phone application that will enchant soft objects to
enhance human's interaction with the objects. Cuddly utilizes the mobile
phone's camera and flash light (LED) to detect the surrounding brightness value
captured by the camera. When one integrate Cuddly with a soft object and
compresses the object, the brightness level captured by the camera will
decrease. Utilizing the measurement change in brightness values, we can
implement diverse entertainment applications using the different functions a
mobile phone is embedded with, such as animation, sound, Bluetooth
communication etc. For example, we created a boxing game by connecting two
devices through Bluetooth; with one device inserted into a soft object and the
other acting as a screen. Keywords: Soft objects; mobile phone based computing; camera-based measurement; flash
light | |||
| GuideMe: A Mobile Augmented Reality System to Display User Manuals for Home Appliances | | BIBA | Full-Text | 152-167 | |
| Lars Müller; Ilhan Aslan; Lucas Krüßen | |||
| In this paper we present GuideMe, a mobile augmented reality application that provides assistance in using appliances. In order to explore how users perceive GuideMe, as a design of an interactive and digital manual, we conducted two user studies. We compared GuideMe first with paper-based manuals and then with video-based manuals. Our results indicate that the paper-based manuals were superior regarding typical usability measures (i.e. error rates and completion times). However, participants reported a significantly higher perceived task load when using paper-based manuals. Due to a better user experience, GuideMe was preferred by 9 of 10 participants over paper-based manuals. We present our design in detail and discuss broader implications of designing digital manuals. Furthermore, we introduce a custom format to define manual structures for mobile augmented reality enabled manuals. | |||
| Petanko Roller: A VR System with a Rolling-Pin Haptic Interface for Entertainment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 168-181 | |
| Ken Nakagaki; Keina Konno; Shuntaro Tashiro; Ayaka Ikezawa; Yusaku Kimura; Masaru Jingi; Yasuaki Kakehi | |||
| Most people will have experienced squishing clay and making it flat. The
action of changing the shapes of real objects induces pleasant feelings or
excitement. In this research, we propose a system, named Petanko Roller, which
enables users to experience the sensation of rolling out any object in the real
world with a rolling pin virtually. This system, by detecting the shapes of
physical objects with a range camera, can represent haptic sensations of
unevenness or friction of the objects, using modules for clunk mechanisms and
brakes of a rolling-pin-based interface. Furthermore, by projecting images of
the objects being squished on a tabletop display, it can also give optical
feedback to users. In this paper, we discuss the system design, implementation,
and behavior of users in exhibitions. Keywords: Rolling Pin; VR Entertainment; Haptic Interface; Tangible Interface | |||
| Emoballoon | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 182-197 | |
| Kosuke Nakajima; Yuichi Itoh; Yusuke Hayashi; Kazuaki Ikeda; Kazuyuki Fujita; Takao Onoye | |||
| People often communicate with others using social touch interactions
including hugging, rubbing, and punching. We propose a soft social-touchable
interface called "Emoballoon" that can recognize the types of social touch
interactions. The proposed interface consists of a balloon and some sensors
including a barometric pressure sensor inside of a balloon, and has a soft
surface and ability to detect the force of the touch input. We construct the
prototype of Emoballoon using a simple configuration based on the features of a
balloon, and evaluate the implemented prototype. The evaluation indicates that
our implementation can distinguish seven types of touch interactions with 83.5%
accuracy. Finally, we discuss possibilities and future applications of the
balloon-made interface. Keywords: Soft interface; social touch interaction; gesture recognition | |||
| Theory and Application of the Colloidal Display: Programmable Bubble Screen for Computer Entertainment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 198-214 | |
| Yoichi Ochiai; Alexis Oyama; Takayuki Hoshi; Jun Rekimoto | |||
| It is difficult to dynamically change the optical properties of ordinary
screens. In conventional projection systems, the choice of screens is limited;
and the brightness of projected images and the viewing angle are unalterable
once a screen is fixed, even though demand for altering the viewing angle
according to the locations and the requirements of installations exists.
The results of a study conducted by us indicate that a colloidal membrane can be used as a screen by vibrating it at a high frequency using ultrasonic waves. On the basis of those results, in this paper we discuss the implementation of a screen that allows us to dynamically change its brightness and view angle. We also discuss our investigation of its optical characteristics. Our investigations reveal that the screen can be deformed by stronger ultrasonic waves, frames of various shapes can be used to create it, and that we can interact with it by inserting our fingers because it is made of colloidal solution. Keywords: Colloidal Display; Entertainment Computing; Virtual Reality; HCI | |||
| Return of the Man-Machine Interface: Violent Interactions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 215-229 | |
| Duncan Rowland; Conor Linehan; Kwamena Appiah-Kubi; Maureen Schoonheyt | |||
| This paper presents the design and evaluation of "the man-machine interface"
a punchable interface designed to criticise and react against the values
inherent in modern systems that tacitly favour one type of user (linguistically
and technically gifted) and alienate another (physically gifted). We report a
user study, where participants used the device to express their opinions before
engaging in a group discussion about the implications of strength-based
interactions. We draw connections between our own work and that of evolutionary
biologists whose recent findings indicate the shape of the human hand is likely
to have been partly evolved for the purpose of punching, and conclude by
examining violent force as an appropriate means for expressing thoughts and
feelings. Keywords: Man-machine interface; punch interface; critical design; values-sensitive
design | |||
| Non-branching Interactive Comics | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 230-245 | |
| Edirlei Soares de Lima; Bruno Feijó; Antonio L. Furtado; Simone Diniz Junqueira Barbosa; Cesar T. Pozzer; Angelo E. M. Ciarlini | |||
| Comics are a unique and classical form of storytelling. The advent of
interactive narratives brings the possibility of interaction to the traditional
comic books. In this paper we present a non-branching interactive comics system
capable of generating dynamic interactive narratives in the format of comic
books. The system allows users to interact with certain objects, and then
observe the consequences of their actions in the unfolding story. We validate
the proposed system with a user study conducted with 18 participants. The
results indicate that such systems may indeed provide an attractive form of
entertainment. Keywords: Interactive Comics; Interactive Storytelling; Comic Book | |||
| The Art of Tug of War: Investigating the Influence of Remote Touch on Social Presence in a Distributed Rope Pulling Game | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 246-257 | |
| Thomas Beelen; Robert Blaauboer; Noraly Bovenmars; Bob Loos; Lukas Zielonka; Robby van Delden; Gijs Huisman; Dennis Reidsma | |||
| In this paper we investigate whether remote touch in the form of force
feedback from another player's actions can enhance feelings of social presence
and enjoyment of a collaborative, spatially distributed rope pulling game.
Dyads of players situated in different rooms were either given an 'elastic
band' type force feedback, or were given force feedback of the other player's
actions (i.e. remote touch). Results showed that feedback from another player's
actions enhanced feelings of social presence but not enjoyment of the game. Keywords: Remote touch; Social presence; Distributed play; Haptic feedback | |||
| Singing Like a Tenor without a Real Voice | | BIBA | Full-Text | 258-269 | |
| Jochen Feitsch; Marco Strobel; Christian Geiger | |||
| We describe a multimedia installation that provides users with the experience to sing like a tenor from the early 20th century. The user defines vowels with her mouth but does not produce sound. The mouth shape is recognized and tracked by a depth-sensing camera and synthesized using a dedicated sound analysis using formants. Arm gestures are recognized and used to determine pitch and volume of an artificially generated voice. This synthesized voice is additionally modified by acoustic filters to sound like a singing voice from an old gramophone. The installation allows to scan the user's face and to create an individual 3D model of a tenor character that is used to visualize the user performance. | |||
| An Experimental Approach to Identifying Prominent Factors in Video Game Difficulty | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 270-283 | |
| James Fraser; Michael Katchabaw; Robert E. Mercer | |||
| This paper explores a full factorial analysis methodology to identify game
factors with practical significance on the level of difficulty of a game. To
evaluate this methodology, we designed an experimental testbed game, based on
the classic game Pac-Man. Our experiment decomposes the evaluation of the level
of difficulty of the game into a set of response variables, such as the score.
Our offline experiment simulates the behaviour of Pac-Man and the ghosts to
evaluate each game factor's impact on a set of response variables. Our analysis
highlights factors that significantly contribute to the game play of individual
players as well as to general player strategies. This offline evaluation
provides a benefit to commercial games as a useful tool for performing tasks
such as game balancing, level tuning and identifying playability and usability
issues. Keywords: Dynamic Difficulty; Game Balancing; Adaptive Game System | |||
| Goin' Goblins -- Iterative Design of an Entertaining Archery Experience | | BIBA | Full-Text | 284-295 | |
| Christian Geiger; Simon Thiele; Laurid Meyer; Stefan Meyer; Lutz Hören; Daniel Drochtert | |||
| We present the iterative development of a 3D simulator for traditional archery and the design of a gaming level that should attract visitors at trade fairs and exhibitions. We want to provide users with a believable archery experience and support novel users in practicing the motion sequence of traditional archery using a virtual 3D environment. To provide a realistic haptic feedback we used a real bow interaction device and wind output in our simulation. We extended a bow damping system by electronic sensors to detect draw and release of the bow, aiming at a virtual target and user movement in front of a large projection screen. To entertain visitors at trade fairs and exhibitions we designed a two-player mode and a small 3D adventure with different tasks. | |||
| Engaging Users in Audio Labelling as a Movie Browsing Game with a Purpose | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 296-307 | |
| Jorge M. A. Gomes; Teresa Chambel; Thibault Langlois | |||
| Nowadays, movies, video, audio and games have a strong presence in human
life, being a massive source of entertainment. Increasingly, movies and videos
are becoming accessible as enormous collections over the Internet, in social
media and interactive TV, demanding for more powerful ways to search, browse
and view them, that benefit from video content-based analysis and
classification techniques. From the point of view of the content-based analysis
methods, a challenging aspect is the constitution of collections of labelled
data. Inspired by the Game With A Purpose approach we propose SoundsLike, a
game that pursues two goals: 1) entertaining the user in movie browsing; 2) use
this interaction to collect data and improve our content-based sound analysis
techniques. SoundsLike is integrated in MovieClouds, an interactive web
application designed to access, explore and visualize movies based on the
information conveyed in the different tracks or perspectives of its content. Keywords: Interactive Browsing; Audio; Music; Soundtrack; Video; Movies; Tagging;
Labelling; Human Computation; Game With A Purpose; Gamification; Entertainment;
Engagement; User Experience | |||
| Creating Immersive Audio and Lighting Based Physical Exercise Games for Schoolchildren | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 308-319 | |
| Jaakko Hakulinen; Markku Turunen; Tomi Heimonen; Tuuli Keskinen; Antti Sand; Janne Paavilainen; Jaana Parviainen; Sari Yrjänäinen; Frans Mäyrä; Jussi Okkonen; Roope Raisamo | |||
| We have created story-based exercise games utilizing light and sound to
encourage children to participate in physical exercise in schools. Our
reasonably priced technological setup provides practical and expressive means
for creating immersive and rich experiences to support physical exercise
education in schools. Studies conducted in schools showed that the story and
drama elements draw children into the world of the exercise game. Moreover,
children who do not like traditional games and exercises engaged in these
activities. Our experiences also suggest that children's imagination plays a
great role in the design and engagement into exercise games, which makes
co-creation with children a viable and exciting approach to creating new games. Keywords: Exergaming; interactive lighting; storytelling | |||
| Game Flux Analysis with Provenance | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 320-331 | |
| Troy C. Kohwalter; Esteban G. W. Clua; Leonardo G. P. Murta | |||
| Winning or losing a game session is the final consequence of a series of
decisions and actions made during the game. The analysis and understanding of
events, mistakes, and fluxes of a concrete game play may be useful for
different reasons: understanding problems related to gameplay, data mining of
specific situations, and even understanding educational and learning aspects in
serious games. We introduce a novel approach based on provenance concepts in
order to model and represent a game flux. We model the game data and map it to
provenance to generate a provenance graph for analysis. As an example, we also
instantiated our proposed conceptual framework and graph generation in a
serious game, allowing developers and designers to identify possible mistakes
and failures in gameplay design by analyzing the generated provenance graph
from collected gameplay data. Keywords: Game flux; Game analysis; Provenance; Graph Analysis | |||
| The Challenge of Automatic Level Generation for Platform Videogames Based on Stories and Quests | | BIBA | Full-Text | 332-343 | |
| Fausto Mourato; Fernando Birra; Manuel Próspero dos Santos | |||
| In this article we bring the concepts of narrativism and ludology to automatic level generation for platform videogames. The initial motivation is to understand how this genre has been used as a storytelling medium. Based on a narrative theory of games, the differences among several titles have been identified. In addition, we propose a set of abstraction layers to describe the content of a quest-based story in the particular context of videogames. Regarding automatic level generation for platform videogames, we observed that the existing approaches are directed to lower abstraction concepts such as avatar movements without a particular context or meaning. This leads us to the challenge of automatically creating more contextualized levels rather than only a set of consistent and playable entertaining tasks. With that in mind, a set of higher level design patterns are presented and their potential usages are envisioned and discussed. | |||
| Six Enablers of Instant Photo Sharing Experiences in Small Groups Based on the Field Trial of Social Camera | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 344-355 | |
| Jarno Ojala; Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila; Arto Lehtiniemi | |||
| Mobile photo taking and sharing has become a frequent leisure-time activity
for smartphone users. This paper presents a field study of a mobile application
called Social Camera, which enables instant sharing of photos within small
groups. The application enables collaborative creation of photo collections
with shared folders in the cloud and instant connection through the folders and
photos. Social Camera was evaluated using four groups (altogether 17 users) in
a field trial. The results reveal six enablers of instant photo-sharing
experiences within small groups: sense of connectedness and social awareness,
presentation and expression of self, lightweight and surprising interaction,
collective photography, documentation of experiences, and finally, privacy and
user control. This work gives design implications of these enablers for
photo-sharing applications. Keywords: Photo sharing; user study; mobile application; social media interaction;
user experience; design | |||
| Attack on the Clones: Managing Player Perceptions of Visual Variety and Believability in Video Game Crowds | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 356-367 | |
| Sean Oxspring; Ben Kirman; Oliver Szymanezyk | |||
| Crowds of non-player characters are increasingly common in contemporary
video games. It is often the case that individual models are re-used, lowering
visual variety in the crowd and potentially affecting realism and
believability. This paper explores a number of approaches to increase visual
diversity in large game crowds, and discusses a procedural solution for
generating diverse non-player character models. This is evaluated using mixed
methods, including a "clone spotting" activity and measurement of impact on
computational overheads, in order to present a multi-faceted and adjustable
solution to increase believability and variety in video game crowds. Keywords: Crowds; video games; visual diversity; multi-agent systems | |||
| A Framework for Evaluating Behavior Change Interventions through Gaming | | BIBA | Full-Text | 368-379 | |
| Valentina Rao | |||
| As behavior change interventions increasingly use game and game-like strategies to influence behavior, it seems pressing to develop a specific framework that reconsiders game design practices in a way to include the issue of persuasive effectiveness. This paper presents an overview of current discussion regarding persuasion through games and proposes the category of "game systems" to include different kinds of persuasive strategies that employ gaming such as persuasive games, gamification and gameful design, in order to facilitate the development of design tools that are goal-specific towards behavior change. Current tools focus on game usability or playability, but very few offer usable heuristics for the evaluation of persuasive efficacy. The following pages propose an initial differentiation between persuasive game systems that act as computer-mediated communication and others that instead behave as computer human interaction, to highlight the necessity for different design strategies. | |||
| eVision: A Mobile Game to Improve Environmental Awareness | | BIBA | Full-Text | 380-391 | |
| Bruno Santos; Teresa Romão; A. Eduardo Dias; Pedro Centieiro | |||
| A significant part of the population is still not aware of the sustainability problems that our planet is facing, so it is important to inform the citizens while persuading them to change their behaviour and to acquire pro-environmental attitudes. The work presented in this paper describes an environmental scanner, named eVision, which combines augmented reality and mobile computing technologies to allow users to inspect their surroundings with their mobile devices in search for pollution sources. When detected, eVision provides users with additional information regarding those environmental threats and allows users to virtually eliminate them. eVision also works as an entertaining and persuasive game, incorporating a rewarding system and a virtual game character that interacts with the users and positively reinforces their pro-environmental actions. The paper also presents the user studies performed so far to evaluate the application's usability and impact on the users' environmental awareness and attitudes. | |||
| Why Does It Always Rain on Me? Influence of Gender and Environmental Factors on Usability, Technology Related Anxiety and Immersion in Virtual Environments | | BIBA | Full-Text | 392-402 | |
| Mareike Schmidt; Johanna Xenia Kafka; Oswald D. Kothgassner; Helmut Hlavacs; Leon Beutl; Anna Felnhofer | |||
| Collaborative virtual environments and technical possibilities in general are still a growing and more and more important influence on everyday life. According to corresponding studies it seems that context conditions as well as individual factors such as gender play an important role in the experience of virtual environments (i.e. immersion and technology-related anxiety) and in the rating of the used technology (i.e. its perceived usefulness). Thus, the objective of the current study was to evaluate the above mentioned factors in a group of 14 women and 14 men using two different emotionally charged collaborative virtual environments. The corresponding results indicate that there are in fact gender differences: Women reported higher levels of technology-related anxiety and immersion. In general, participants in the rainy condition rated the usefulness of the virtual environment higher. Also, women in the rainy condition rated the perceived usefulness higher than women in the cheerful condition whereas in the group of men it was vice versa. | |||
| Meaning in Life as a Source of Entertainment | | BIBA | Full-Text | 403-414 | |
| Robby van Delden; Dennis Reidsma | |||
| In this paper we mean to introduce into the field of entertainment computing an overview of insights concerning fundamental human needs. Researchers such as Hassenzahl and Desmet, discuss design approaches based on psychological insights from various and varied sources. We collect these and expand them with a focus on meaning in life as seen in humanistic philosophy. We summarise the various roles that these insights can play in our research on new technology, and illustrate the discussion with examples from the field of computer entertainment. | |||
| D-FLIP: Dynamic and Flexible Interactive PhotoShow | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 415-427 | |
| Chi Thanh Vi; Kazuki Takashima; Hitomi Yokoyama; Gengdai Liu; Yuichi Itoh; Sriram Subramanian; Yoshifumi Kitamura | |||
| We propose D-FLIP, a novel algorithm that dynamically displays a set of
digital photos using different principles for organizing them. A variety of
requirements for photo arrangements can be flexibly replaced or added through
the interaction and the results are continuously and dynamically displayed.
D-FLIP uses an approach based on combinatorial optimization and emergent
computation, where geometric parameters such as location, size, and photo angle
are considered to be functions of time; dynamically determined by local
relationships among adjacent photos at every time instance. As a consequence,
the global layout of all photos is automatically varied. We first present
examples of photograph behaviors that demonstrate the algorithm and then
investigate users' task engagement using EEG in the context of story
preparation and telling. The result shows that D-FLIP requires less task
engagement and mental efforts in order to support storytelling. Keywords: Dynamic PhotoShow; Emergent Computing; EEG | |||
| PukaPuCam: Enhance Travel Logging Experience through Third-Person View Camera Attached to Balloons | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 428-439 | |
| Tsubasa Yamamoto; Yuta Sugiura; Suzanne Low; Koki Toda; Kouta Minamizawa; Maki Sugimoto; Masahiko Inami | |||
| PukaPuCam is an application service that utilizes a camera attached to
balloons, to capture users' photo continuously from a third-person view. Then,
users can glance through their photos by using PukaPuCam Viewer. PukaPuCam
records the interaction between users and their surrounding objects or even
with the people they meet. As balloon experiences air resistance, it can change
its inclination according to the user's speed and thus, capture pictures from
different direction or angles. This gives rise to interesting and unusual
records to be added to the user's collection. As compare to other similar
devices, PukaPuCam uses a common design people are familiarize with -- a
balloon; making it an interesting application to be used at tourist spots. As
balloons are cute, we aim to give users a more enjoyable, delightful
experience. Keywords: life logging; third-person view; balloon; sightseeing | |||
| Advances in MASELTOV -- Serious Games in a Mobile Ecology of Services for Social Inclusion and Empowerment of Recent Immigrants | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 440-455 | |
| Lucas Paletta; Ian Dunwell; Mark Gaved; Jan Bobeth; Sofoklis Efremidis; Patrick Luley; Agnes Kukulska-Hulme; Sara de Freitas; Petros Lameras; Stephanie Deutsch | |||
| Immigration imposes a range of challenges with the risk of social exclusion.
As part of a comprehensive suite of services for immigrants, the MASELTOV game
seeks to provide both practical tools and innovative learning services via
mobile devices, providing a readily usable resource for recent immigrants. We
introduce advanced results, such as the game-based learning aspect in the frame
of recommender services, and present the rationale behind its interaction
design. Benefits and implications of mobile platforms and emergent data capture
techniques for game-based learning are discussed, as are methods for putting
engaging gameplay at the forefront of the experience whilst relying on rich
data capture and analysis to provide effective learning solutions. Keywords: Mobile serious game; social inclusion; incidental learning framework;
recommender system; human factors | |||
| Building an Intelligent, Authorable Serious Game for Autistic Children and Their Carers | | BIBA | Full-Text | 456-475 | |
| Kaska Porayska-Pomsta; Keith Anderson; Sara Bernardini; Karen Guldberg; Tim Smith; Lila Kossivaki; Scott Hodgins; Ian Lowe | |||
| This paper introduces the SHARE-IT project, which leverages serious games paradigm to motivate and engage children with autism diagnosis in interactive activities, based on the state-of-the-art autism intervention practices. The aim of SHARE-IT is to formulate, in partnership with schools, parents and industry, the requirements for a robust, intelligent and authorable environment for supporting children in exploring, practicing and acquiring social interaction skills. SHARE-IT focuses on two key challenges: (i) developing robust system architecture and implementation, able to support both continuing development of a serious game for children with autism and its real world use; and (ii) selecting appropriate technologies and techniques to allow for (a) multi-device and operating system deployment, (b) the development of an intelligent serious game for supporting social interaction while (c) allowing the flexibility for the environment to be authored by lay persons. SHARE-IT's architecture is presented and several considerations of importance to enabling the engineering of an intelligent and authorable serious game are discussed. Examples of technologies developed to date are given throughout and a discussion of future challenges offered. | |||
| The TARDIS Framework: Intelligent Virtual Agents for Social Coaching in Job Interviews | | BIBA | Full-Text | 476-491 | |
| Keith Anderson; Elisabeth André; T. Baur; Sara Bernardini; M. Chollet; E. Chryssafidou; I. Damian; C. Ennis; A. Egges; P. Gebhard; H. Jones; M. Ochs; C. Pelachaud; Kaska Porayska-Pomsta; P. Rizzo; Nicolas Sabouret | |||
| The TARDIS project aims to build a scenario-based serious-game simulation platform for NEETs and job-inclusion associations that supports social training and coaching in the context of job interviews. This paper presents the general architecture of the TARDIS job interview simulator, and the serious game paradigm that we are developing. | |||
| Development of a Full-Body Interaction Digital Game for Children to Learn Vegetation Succession | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 492-496 | |
| Takayuki Adachi; Hiroshi Mizoguchi; Miki Namatame; Fusako Kusunoki; Masanori Sugimoto; Keita Muratsu; Etsuji Yamaguchi; Shigenori Inagaki; Yoshiaki Takeda | |||
| In this study, we developed a simulation game called "Human SUGOROKU" that
simulates vegetation succession of the real forest area in the virtual world.
This game consists of a full-body interaction system to enable children to
enjoy and learn vegetation succession by playing with their body movement. We
conducted an experiment with children and investigated the effects of the
full-body interaction through interviews. The results showed that the full-body
interaction promotes a sense of immersion in the game. This paper describes the
structure of this system and the interview results. Keywords: Interactive Content; Ultrasonic Sensor; Embodiment; Learning Support System | |||
| Assessing Player Motivations and Expectations within a Gameplay Experience Model Proposal | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 497-500 | |
| Samuel Almeida; Ana Veloso; Licínio Roque; Óscar Mealha | |||
| This work explores a Gameplay Experience Model proposal centered on the
dynamic interaction and interplay that exists during video game play. Two
elements are key in the model -- the Video Game and the Player -- defined by a
group of dimensions and characteristics that can influence each other during
game play. A study was carried out with 40 individuals that played a video game
during multiple rounds. After each round players answered a questionnaire on
their experience and how the model characteristics manifested during the game.
Results collected from the questionnaires were analyzed to assess how game
related characteristics influence player Expectations and Motivations. Keywords: Gameplay Experience; Video Game; Player; Expectations; Motivations; Model | |||
| OUTLIVE -- An Augmented Reality Multi-user Board Game Played with a Mobile Device | | BIBA | Full-Text | 501-504 | |
| Edward Andrukaniec; Carmen Franken; Daniel Kirchhof; Tobias Kraus; Fabian Schöndorff; Christian Geiger | |||
| We present a mobile augmented reality that combines elements of traditional board games with digital game content. We designed a multi-user game play inspired by "Settlers of Catan" with real game elements and use a mobile device as "magic window" to enable the currently active player to see things that the other players can not see and to act without letting others know. This supports our objective to integrate a mobile device as central element for a "magic circle of play". | |||
| Onomatrack: Quick Recording of User's Rhythmic Ideas Using Onomatopoeia | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 505-508 | |
| Jo Arima; Keiko Yamamoto; Itaru Kuramoto; Yoshihiro Tsujino | |||
| While creating music, musicians often want to record their rhythm pattern
ideas. If this cannot be done quickly and with minimum effort, their ideas
could be forgotten or documented unclearly. In this paper, we propose a system
named Onomatrack, which uses onomatopoeias to easily record complicated
rhythmic ideas. Using onomatopoeias, users can choose their desired sound
quickly and intuitively without searching for it in lists of sound databases.
Users can input sounds by writing down onomatopoeias directly to the system as
a "rough sketch" of their rhythmic ideas, and can adjust musical parameters by
changing the size and position of the onomatopoeias. Keywords: music production; onomatopoeia; idea recording | |||
| Musical Interaction Design for Real-Time Score Recognition towards Applications for Musical Learning and Interactive Art | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 509-512 | |
| Tetsuaki Baba; Yuya Kikukawa; Toshiki Yoshiike; Kumiko Kushiyama | |||
| Not only in childhood but also adulthood, we need some training to read
music scores, which sometimes make music hard to learn and enjoy. In this
article, we shall propose the system that enables users to play their
handwritten musical notations by our musical interface. Since 1960's, Optical
Music Recognition (OMR) has become mature in the field of printed score. In
recent, some products were released on market that uses OMR for music
composition and playing. However, few research on handwritten notations have
been done, as well as an interactive system for OMR. We combined notating with
performing in order to make the music more intuitive for users and give aid for
learning music. Furthermore, we applied our technique to an interactive work,
which is kind of vision based record disc. Keywords: Musical Interface; Musical Notation; Interactive Art; Interaction Design;
Computer Vision | |||
| How to Make Tangible Games and Not Die in the Attempt | | BIBA | Full-Text | 513-515 | |
| Eva Cerezo; Javier Marco; Sandra Baldassarri | |||
| Tabletop devices offer an attractive environment to create tangible games that seamlessly integrate physical and digital game interaction. However, the prototyping of Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) challenges designers, preventing the rapid exploration of richer physical interactions with the game. In spite of the toolkits that are emerging in the TUI domain the development of an application is not easy, since it usually implies to "hardcode" complex algorithms to process raw data from tabletop in order to detect and track each playing piece manipulated on the active surface. This situation brings a gap between designers and developers. The aim of the workshop is to give attendants an opportunity of gathering experiences from both the designing and the implementation perspectives, making community and discussing current challenges and future perspectives. | |||
| Touch, Taste, and Smell: Multi-sensory Entertainment | | BIBA | Full-Text | 516-518 | |
| Adrian D. Cheok; Jordan Tewell; Gilang A. Pradana; Koki Tsubouchi | |||
| This workshop's purpose is to gain awareness of using all five of our senses for creating multimedia artifacts such as in entertainment. We are interested in the user's emotional feedback from using the addition of touch, smell, and taste in entertaining activities. The workshop organizers will present a background review for each of the three senses and their key projects for each: RingU, a wearable fashion interface for sending virtual hugs, "Digital Taste Interface", a device that transmits a sense of taste without chemicals, and ChatPerf, an accessory that actuates scent from a user's mobile phone (Fig 1). We also welcome attendees to discuss work of their own that exhibits one or a combination of these three senses in a fun and novel way. | |||
| Between Music and Games: Interactive Sonic Engagement with Emergent Behaviors | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 519-523 | |
| Insook Choi; Robin Bargar | |||
| Data from an interactive simulation of dynamic agents' social behavior is
applied to the control of real-time sound synthesis. User engagement models
present the application of sound in parallel with visualization in a simulated
environment where content is generated dynamically and is playable.
Computational models for the simulation and for sound synthesis are discussed,
including requirements and constraints for interactive applications. Design
principles for interactive sound are introduced and implementations of three
models of sonic engagement are compared. Keywords: evolutionary interface; agents; swarms simulation; sound synthesis;
interaction; playable media; engagement; sound authoring; client-server;
multimodal correspondence | |||
| Linear Logic Validation and Hierarchical Modeling for Interactive Storytelling Control | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 524-527 | |
| Kim Dung Dang; Phuong Thao Pham; Ronan Champagnat; Mourad Rabah | |||
| The games are typical interactive applications where the system has to react
to user actions and behavior with respect to some predefined rules established
by the designer. The storytelling allows the interactive system to unfold the
scenario of the game story according to these inputs and constraints. In order
to improve system's behavior, the scenario should be structured and the
system's control should be validated. In this paper, we deal with these two
issues. We first show how to validate Interactive Storytelling (IS) control
using Linear Logic (LL). Then we present "situation-based" hierarchical
scenario structuring which allows the state space reduction. Keywords: Video game; Linear Logic; Interactive Storytelling; scenario validation;
game controller; situation-based scenario | |||
| GlowSteps -- A Decentralized Interactive Play Environment for Open-Ended Play | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 528-531 | |
| Linda de Valk; Pepijn Rijnbout; Mark de Graaf; Tilde Bekker; Ben Schouten; Berry Eggen | |||
| In this paper we present the interactive play environment GlowSteps.
GlowSteps consists of ten flexible tiles that respond with light feedback on
player's actions. The play environment is developed to support both social and
physical play and is designed with the intention to encourage children to
create their own play and games. The tiles can be programmed with different
interaction behaviors leading to a variety of play experiences. This showcase
illustrates our design approach for such interactive play environments,
combining the fields of decentralized systems and open-ended play. Keywords: Play Environment; Open-ended play; Decentralized Systems | |||
| Eat&Travel: A New Immersive Dining Experience for Restaurants | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 532-535 | |
| Mara Dionísio; Duarte Teixeira; Poan Shen; Mario Dinis; Monchu Chen; Nuno Nunes; Valentina Nisi; José Paiva | |||
| Modern society is moving towards a busier lifestyle, people have less time
to enjoy themselves despite the increasing leisure options. Also, many
countries around the world are facing a financial crisis, making people less
wiling to travel abroad. In this paper we describe Eat&Travel, an
interactive solution that ties dining and traveling together, offering
restaurants the possibility to offer their customers an opportunity to enjoy a
unique regional meal combined with a virtual trip in a river, where they can
appreciate the landscape and learn more about the country and the culture,
using an immersive CAVE environment, without the need to travel abroad. Keywords: CAVE; Dining Experience; Virtual Travel; Local Culture; River Cruising | |||
| Evaluation of the Dialogue Information Function of Interactive Puppet Theater: A Puppet-Show System for Deaf Children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 536-539 | |
| Ryohei Egusa; Kumiko Wada; Takayuki Adachi; Masafumi Goseki; Miki Namatame; Fusako Kusunoki; Hiroshi Mizoguchi; Shigenori Inagaki | |||
| We have developed Interactive Puppet Theater, a puppet-show system designed
for use by deaf children. For this study, we conducted evaluation experiments
to determine whether Interactive Puppet Theater helps these children to have an
enriched viewing experience. The evaluation results showed that Interactive
Puppet Theater could be an effective way to ensure that deaf children
understand the characters' dialogue as they watch the puppet-show, and that it
enables them to have an enjoyable viewing experience. Keywords: Puppet show; Balloon; Kinect sensor; Deaf children | |||
| Music Puzzle: An Audio-Based Computer Game That Inspires to Train Listening Abilities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 540-543 | |
| Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen; Rumi Hiraga; Zheng Li; Hua Wang | |||
| The Music Puzzle is a computer game for tablets and smartphones using sounds
for the gameplay. Just like an original picture is reconstructed from pieces
with jigsaw puzzle, an original sound is reconstructed from musical segments
with Music Puzzle. Each segment is distorted by shifting the pitch and
equalization. To finish the game, the user listens to each segment visualized
as pieces on the screen, reorders them, and corrects their pitch and
equalization. The game has a possibility for deaf and hard of hearing people to
improve their residual hearing ability since the observation shows their
concentrating the game with sounds and preference for music. Keywords: tablet game; hearing ability; audio based game; training | |||
| Enabling Interactive Bathroom Entertainment Using Embedded Touch Sensors in the Bathtub | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 544-547 | |
| Shigeyuki Hirai; Yoshinobu Sakakibara; Hironori Hayashi | |||
| We propose a new entertaining bathroom environment with applications
controlled via capacitive touch sensors embedded in the bathtub. The bathtub
touch sensor system, called TubTouch, provides a new touch user interface near
to the edge of the bathtub for persons who are bathing. TubTouch can be used to
control both existing bathroom equipment, such as water heaters, jacuzzis, TVs,
audio, and lighting, and a variety of new applications. In this paper, we give
an overview of the TubTouch system and discuss its entertainment applications
used in daily life. Keywords: Capacitive Touch Sensor; Bathroom; Bathtub; Everyday Life | |||
| Audio-Haptic Rendering of Water Being Poured from Sake Bottle | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 548-551 | |
| Sakiko Ikeno; Ryuta Okazaki; Taku Hachisu; Michi Sato; Hiroyuki Kajimoto | |||
| The impression of food can be affected by "rendition" -- i.e., the
surrounding environment such as the appearance of the food and the dish -- not
just by its taste. We focused on the sound and vibration of liquid being poured
from a Japanese Sake bottle as a haptic rendition of liquid. Sake bottles are
known for their unique "glug" sound and vibration which we believe affects the
subjective impression of the liquid in the bottle. To examine this idea, we
proposed a method that reproduces the vibration of pouring liquid from a
Japanese Sake bottle by measuring and modeling real vibrations. We measured the
vibration of water by tilting a Sake bottle at different angles, and created a
model consisting of two decaying sinusoidal waves of different frequencies. To
verify the appropriateness of the model, we developed two types of devices; a
bottle-shaped device with embedded vibrators and an attachment type device for
any plastic bottle. Keywords: haptic rendering; pouring water; tactile display; tang | |||
| Living Chernoff Faces: Bringing Drama and Infotainment to Public Displays | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 552-555 | |
| Ido Aharon Iurgel; Andreas Petker; Björn Herrmann; Christina Martens; Pedro Ribeiro | |||
| Interactive public displays are already widespread without being yet
ubiquitous. With advances in computer vision technologies and falling prices
for displays and sensors, we assume considerable growth in the upcoming years,
in particular for publicity and related areas. This motivates our exploration
of Living Chernoff Faces. Chernoff Faces represent data as features of an
abstract face. The Chernoff Faces for digital signage that we are currently
developing are alive; They are displayed in public spaces and are equipped with
a camera. They look at users and passers-by and communicate with them
non-verbally, thus combining the presentation of information, attention
seeking, interaction, and fun. Keywords: Chernoff-Faces; Storytelling; Anthropomorphic Interface Agents; Public
Displays; Digital Signage; Entertainment; Publicity; Infotainment | |||
| Character Visualization in Miniature Environments with an Optical See-through Head-Mounted Display | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 556-559 | |
| Dongsik Jo; Daehwan Kim; Yongwan Kim; Ki-Hong Kim; Gil-Haeng Lee | |||
| In this paper, we present a visualization method of virtual characters to
provide augmented reality (AR) experiences for a user wearing an optical
see-through head-mounted display (HMD). First of all, we execute plane
detection to find position of a user's real desk. Second, we perform position
update of virtual characters to connect real-time location information for
reflecting the height of miniature objects on the desk. Finally, we visualize
virtual characters that is involved in environmental properties with the
optical based see-through HMD. Our method can be applied to AR contents with
respect to contexts of environmental information surrounding the user such as
miniature elements. Keywords: Augmented reality; virtual character; see-through HMD | |||
| MARIO: Mid-Air Augmented Reality Interaction with Objects | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 560-563 | |
| Hanyuool Kim; Issei Takahashi; Hiroki Yamamoto; Takayuki Kai; Satoshi Maekawa; Takeshi Naemura | |||
| This paper proposes a novel interactive system that supports augmented
reality interaction between mid-air images and physical objects. Our "Mid-air
Augmented Reality Interaction with Objects (MARIO)" system enables visual
images to be displayed at various positions and precise depths in mid-air. For
entertainment purposes, a game character appears in mid-air and runs around and
over "real" blocks which users have arranged by hands. Users thereby enjoy
interaction with physical blocks and virtual images. Keywords: Mid-air Image; Interactive Blocks; Tangible User Interface; Mixed Reality;
Augmented Reality | |||
| A Face-Like Structure Detection on Planet and Satellite Surfaces Using Image Processing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 564-567 | |
| Kazutaka Kurihara; Masakazu Takasu; Kazuhiro Sasao; Hal Seki; Takayuki Narabu; Mitsuo Yamamoto; Satoshi Iida; Hiroyuki Yamamoto | |||
| This paper demonstrates that face-like structures are everywhere, and can be
detected automatically even with computers. Huge amount of satellite images of
the Earth, the Moon, and the Mars are explored and many interesting face-like
structure are detected. Throughout this fact, we believe that science and
technologies can alert people not to easily become an occultist. Keywords: Face detection; google map; NASA | |||
| Tinkering in Scientific Education | | BIBA | Full-Text | 568-571 | |
| Maarten H. Lamers; Fons J. Verbeek; Peter W. H. van der Putten | |||
| In recent years in arts, technology and science there appears an increasing push to use technology and design in a more personal and autonomous context, integrated with the physical world. Creative platforms are developed that open up personal digital/physical technology to larger groups of novice tinkerers, allowing people to take control of technology and prototype solutions to personal problems and aims. Likewise, education benefits by providing students with tools and platforms to learn by doing and making. However, these advances lead to new challenges for scientific research and education, such as how to align the open-endedness of tinkering with more fixed education and research agendas. This is the first scientific workshop to identify and discuss such issues, and provide a platform for future collaboration and dissemination of results. | |||
| Modeling Player-Character Engagement in Single-Player Character-Driven Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 572-575 | |
| Petri Lankoski | |||
| This pilot study looks at how the formal features of character-driven games
can be used to explain player-character engagement. Questionnaire data (N=206),
formal game features (in 11 games), and ordinal regression were used in the
analysis. The results show that interactive dialogue and cut-scenes showing the
romances between the player-character and another character relates to higher
character engagement scores, while romance modeling and friendship modeling
relate to lower character engagement scores. Keywords: ordinal regression; player-character; engagement; identification | |||
| Paintrix: Color Up Your Life! | | BIBA | Full-Text | 576-579 | |
| Dimitri Slappendel; Fanny Lie; Martijn de Vos; Alex Kopla; Rafael Bidarra | |||
| Train stations, shopping malls and airports: all public places where we
spend a lot of time, waiting for the train, for our friends and for the gate to
open. While waiting, we get bored and we would like to entertain ourselves in
order to kill time. The first thing that comes to our minds is playing a game
or socializing using our smartphone. People around you are doing the exact same
thing. Wouldn't it be great if you could play a game with those people, a game
which requires collaboration and interaction with your surroundings?
This is exactly where Paintrix comes into play: gather people, form two teams and let them collaborate and compete at the same time. Teams have to solve the same puzzle against the clock. Be faster than your opposing team to win! How does this work? | |||
| The ToyVision Toolkit for Tangible Games | | BIBA | Full-Text | 580-583 | |
| Javier Marco; Eva Cerezo; Sandra Baldassarri | |||
| "ToyVision" is a software toolkit aimed to make easy the prototyping of tangible games in visual based tabletop devices. Compared to other software toolkits, ToyVision provides designers and developers with intuitive tools for modeling innovative tangible controls and with higher level user's manipulations data. Tutorial participants will create a Tangible board-game by using ToyVision. Thanks to it, they will be able to develop a functional prototype without the intrinsic difficulties of managing electronic sensors, actuators and machine vision algorithms. The goal of this tutorial is to give ACE attendants the opportunity of having a first contact on the new possibilities that the Tangible Interaction paradigm can bring to videogames. | |||
| Ball of Secrets | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 584-587 | |
| Ben Margines; Raunaq Gupta; Yoram Chisik | |||
| With this creative showcase titled the Ball of Secrets, we demonstrate an
interactive prototype consisting of a unique user interface with an emphasis on
pure play. Through this prototype we created a device that encourages
playfulness and explore sharing and communication via anonymous message
posting.
In this paper we describe the concept and the technology used to create the interface in order to evoke the necessary user experience. Keywords: Design; Experimentation; Human Factors; Natural tangible interfaces | |||
| 'P.S.(Postscript)' : Hearing of Your Heartstring | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 588-591 | |
| Myongjin Moon; Yeseul Kim | |||
| "'P.S.': Hearing of your Heartstring" is the interactive installation
creating collaborative sound with users' voices. Through this artwork 'P.S.',
we want to ease the people who have a huge wave of nostalgia because of
remaining words in mind and sympathize with each other's nostalgia through
hearing their voices carefully. Keywords: Interactive Installation; Interface for Artistic Expression; Tangible
Interface; Sound Installation | |||
| Children Ideation Workshop | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 592-599 | |
| Christiane Moser | |||
| Player's enjoyment is one of the most important goals for games. Without
this, children will not repeatedly play them. In order to meet children's
needs, it is important to consider them in the development process, for
example, by enabling them to participate actively in the process. Therefore,
children will be enabled to participate in ideation workshops to create
creative low-fidelity prototypes of game ideas that inspire game designers. Keywords: Game design; user-centered design; participatory design; low-fidelity
prototyping; child-computer interaction | |||
| Dosukoi-Tap: The Virtual Paper Sumo Game | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 600-603 | |
| Yuta Nakagawa; Kota Tsukamoto; Yasuyuki Kono | |||
| We have developed a virtual paper sumo game, "Dosukoi-Tap", a Japanese
traditional game using paper figures. A player taps on his/her own-side of the
sumo ring board. He/she lets his/her own wrestler rush and fight with its
opponent. Our system simulates the feature of actual paper sumo and has solved
some of the problems of actual one by employing multi-finger tracking and
pressure-sensitive device. Keywords: virtual game; multi finger tracking; pressure sensitive | |||
| DropNotes: A Music Composition Interface Utilizing the Combination of Affordances of Tangible Objects | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 604-607 | |
| Musashi Nakajima; Hidekazu Saegusa; Yuto Ozaki; Yoshihiro Kanno | |||
| The design principle of Tangible User Interfaces has been applied to musical
interfaces for more accessible usage of computers for musical expression. This
paper proposes DropNotes, a tangible user interface for music composition,
which utilizes the combination of affordances of familiar objects as
metaphorical procedures to manipulate digital audio. By creating more
accessible and intuitive user interface for music composition, we target
opening up a novel interactive musical expression. Keywords: Tangible User Interface; Music Composition; Digital Audio Workstation;
Affordance | |||
| Could the Player's Engagement in a Video Game Increase His/Her Interest in Science? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 608-611 | |
| Stéphane Natkin; Delphine Soriano; Grozdana Erjavec; Marie Durand | |||
| Our work is to analyze how the practice of chosen video games may influence
the player's interest. A set of video games was selected by a group of experts
according to their qualities as games and their relations with scientific
knowledge. A focus test experiment has been set up to evaluate the correlation
between teenagers engagement and their interest in scientific domains. The
analysis of the results shows that the desire to pursue the game and the
sentiment of responsibility has, respectively, a direct and an indirect
influence on the player's scientific interest. Considering that interest is
known to be an important motivational factor in learning, these results have
important implications for the serious games design. Keywords: Video games; scientific knowledge; player's engagement; serious game; focus
test | |||
| Block Device System with Pattern Definition Capability by Visible Light | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 612-615 | |
| Huu Nguyen Nguyen Tran; Junichi Akita | |||
| This paper describes an interactive block device -- LED Tile -- utilizing
8x8 dot-matrix LEDs which obtain pattern drawing capability. It also applies
magnet connectors for physical connections and signal transmissions, as well as
interacts with accelerometer sensor and audio signal device. The function of
the block device can be defined by the drawn pattern on the matrix LED, and
this capability extends the block system applications. In this paper, we
describe the hardware and software configurations of this block device, as well
as several fundamental and high-level functions of alphanumerical character
recognition. We also describe two applications of this device, such as magic
square and character arrangement. Keywords: Block Device; Pattern Drawing; Function Definition | |||
| Multi-sensor Interactive Systems for Embodied Learning Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 616-621 | |
| Nikolaos Poulios; Anton Eliens | |||
| This paper explores the use of modern sensor technologies for physical
interaction in educational games and interactive spaces. The paper presents a
prototype of an educational game developed using a motion capture controller
and two biofeedback sensors (EEG, ECG), proposing a generic architecture for
multi-sensor interactive spaces. Target of this research is to study further
the potential effect of such technologies on educational interactive games, in
two aspects: i) on the involvement of human body and motion in the process of
learning, and recall of knowledge, ii) on assisting the development of basic
social emotional competencies, through the enhanced social affordances of
embodied games. Keywords: multi-sensor systems; educational games; embodied learning; physical
interaction; motion interaction; interactive spaces; affective interaction;
biofeedback sensors | |||
| Photochromic Carpet: Playful Floor Canvas with Color-Changing Footprints | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 622-625 | |
| Daniel Saakes; Takahiro Tsujii; Kohei Nishimura; Tomoko Hashida; Takeshi Naemura | |||
| Natural environments record their past and reveal usage in subtle cues such
as erosion and footprints. In modern society of concrete cities and dynamic
touch screens, this richness is lost.
We present a large size interactive floor display that captures visitors' footsteps in playful prints to make a modern environment into a canvas of past activities. The implementation consists of a carpet coated with color changing ink and shoes that activate color changes. Each step a visitor makes results in a dynamic print that slowly fades away. Keywords: color changing material; interactive floor display | |||
| Mood Dependent Music Generator | | BIBA | Full-Text | 626-629 | |
| Marco Scirea | |||
| Music is one of the most expressive media to show and manipulate emotions,
but there have been few studies on how to generate music connected to emotions.
Such studies have always been shunned upon by musicians affirming that a machine cannot create expressive music, as it's the composer's and player's experiences and emotions that get poured into the piece. At the same time another problem is that music is highly complicated (and subjective) and finding out which elements transmit certain emotions is not an easy task. This demo wants to show how the manipulation of a set of features can actually change the mood the music transmits, hopefully awakening an interest in this area of research. | |||
| A Tangible Platform for Mixing and Remixing Narratives | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 630-633 | |
| Cristina Sylla; Sérgio Gonçalves; Paulo Brito; Pedro Branco; Clara Coutinho | |||
| This work discusses a tangible interface for storytelling that targets
pre-school children and offers a playful experimental space where children can
create their own narratives by placing tangible picture-blocks on an electronic
board. We present the system and report on the findings, describing the extent
to which this interface can motivate and engage children, both in creating
narratives, as well as in experimenting different solutions to solve conflicts
created during the story plot. Keywords: Tangible Interfaces; Storytelling; Oral Expression; Emergent Literacy;
Collaboration; Children | |||
| Network Shogi Environment with Discussion Support after Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 634-637 | |
| Yoshikazu Tagashira; Hiroyuki Tarumi; Toshihiro Hayashi | |||
| Japanese chess called shogi is the most complex variant of chess-like games.
Several services are provided to play shogi on the Internet, but they do not
provide enough functions for kansousen, which is a reviewing discussion session
after games. SAKURA, a network shogi environment developed by us, provides
supports for kansousen. Keywords: Shogi; Network Game Community; Discussion Support | |||
| Hospital Hero: A Game for Reducing Stress and Anxiety of Hospitalized Children in Emergency Room | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 638-641 | |
| Sara Tranquada; Monchu Chen; Yoram Chisik | |||
| A visit to a hospital emergency room is often a traumatic and anxiety
inducing experience for children (as well as their parents). Hospital Hero is
game developed with the aim of helping children familiarize themselves with the
hospital environment and the instruments/equipment that they will undergo while
focusing their attention on positive feedback thereby alleviating their anxiety
and easing the work of hospital staff and the burden on parents and care givers
leading to better treatment and a better experience. Keywords: Games; Children; Hospital; Games for Health; Anxiety Reduction; Children's
Emergency Room | |||
| Toinggg: How Changes in Children's Activity Level Influence Creativity in Open-Ended Play | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 642-645 | |
| Bas van Hoeve; Linda de Valk; Tilde Bekker | |||
| This paper describes an explorative study with an open-ended play
environment called Toinggg that consists of three interactive trampolines and
was developed for children aged 6-8 years old. Toinggg was used to evaluate the
change of children's activity level on creativity in open-ended play. With this
exploration, we aim to gain a better understanding of the balance between
physical activity and creativity in play. In a user evaluation twenty-one
children played in groups of three with Toinggg. Results show an increase in
development of new game play and creativity after a moment of rest concerning
the activity level of the interaction behavior. Keywords: Open-ended Play; Physical Play; Creativity; Design Research | |||
| ZooMor: Three Stages of Play for a Sleeping Creature | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 646-648 | |
| Daniël van Paesschen; Mark de Graaf; Tilde Bekker | |||
| This paper presents a design case of an interactive zoomorphic play object
for open-ended pretend play, based on De Valk's three stages of play framework.
It was designed to invoke pretend play around a sleeping object. Design
iterations were tested in a public play environment. Keywords: open-ended play; pretend play; stages of play; zoomorphic | |||
| Social Believability in Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 649-652 | |
| Harko Verhagen; Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari; Magnus Johansson; Joshua McCoy | |||
| The Social Believability in Games Workshop intends to be a point of
interaction for researchers and game developers interested in different aspects
of modelling, discussing, and developing believable social agents and
Non-Player Characters (NPCs). This can include discussions around behaviour
based on social and behavioural science theories and models, social affordances
when interacting with game worlds and more. The intention is to invite
participants from a multitude of disciplines in order to create a broad
spectrum of approaches to the area. Keywords: social believability; NPCs | |||
| Computer Entertainment in Cars and Transportation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 653-655 | |
| David Wilfinger; Alexander Meschtscherjakov; Christiane Moser; Manfred Tscheligi; Petra Sunström; Dalila Szostak; Roderick McCall | |||
| This workshop deals with the potential that entertainment systems and games
hold for the transportation context. Travelling by car, bus, plane or by foot
can be frustrating and full of negative experiences, but also holds great
potential for innovative entertainment application. New off the shelf
technology offers great potential beyond old-fashioned rear seat entertainment
systems with the sole purpose of keeping kids quiet. The richness of contextual
factors and social situations have so far not sufficiently been exploited,
which is why this workshop aims at discussing potentials for gaming in
transportation. Keywords: games; transportation | |||
| Possibility of Analysis of "Big Data" of Kabuki Play in 19th Century Using the Mathematical Model of Hit Phenomena | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 656-659 | |
| Yasuko Kawahata; Etsuo Genda; Akira Ishii | |||
| Kabuki was a popular entertainment in the Edo period in the 19th century
from the 17th century. Kabuki in the Edo period was different from standing
position as a traditional performing arts in modern. Methods of mathematical
models in Nowadays has been selected topics in SNS through the Internet, they
do not exist in the Edo period. In order to perform the calculation and
measurement of popular artists of the Edo period, we were subject to
publication of the paper medium is the only media at the time (Ukiyoe, poem,
haiku, book) to there. With this approach, the study of past popular actor,
with respect to the reputation of masterpiece can be also from the perspective
of current. Keywords: Hit phenomena; Stochastic process; Kabuki; Senryu; Ukiyo-e | |||
| Ouch! How Embodied Damage Indicators in First-Person Shooting Games Impact Gaming Experience | | BIBA | Full-Text | 660-664 | |
| James E. Young; Ibrahim Shahin; Masayuki Nakane | |||
| In this paper we present results from an exploratory study on first-person shooting game damage indicators, comparing a red flash, a paper doll, and an x-ray mechanism, observing impact on gaming experience. | |||