Making sense of group interaction in an ambient intelligent environment for physical play

This paper presents the results of a study on group interaction with a prototype known as socio-ec(h)o. socioec(h)o explores the design of sensing and display, user modeling, and interaction in an embedded interaction system utilizing a game structure. Our study involved the playing of our prototype system by thirty-six (36) participants grouped into teams of four (4). Our aim was to determine heuristics that we could use to further design the interaction and user model approaches for group and embodied interaction systems. We analyzed group interaction and performance based on factors of team cohesion and goal focus. We found that with our system, these factors alone could not explain performance. However, when transitions in the degrees of each factor, i.e. high, medium or low are considered, a clearer picture for performance emerges. The significance of the results is that they describe recognizable factors for positive group interaction

AmbientSonic Map: Towards a new conceptualization of sound design for games

This paper presents an overview of the main features of sound design for games, and argues for a new conceptualization of it, beginning with a closer look at the role of sound as feedback for gameplay. The paper then proposes and details a new approach for sound feedback in games, which provides ambient, intensity-based sonic display that not only responds to, but also guides the player towards the solution of the game. A pilot study and leading outcomes from it are presented, in the hopes of laying a foundation for future investigations into this type of sonic feedback

Come and play: interactive theatre for early years

The convergence of theatre and digital technologies can play a valuable role in theatre for early years, but, how an audience of under-5’s experiences and engages with these spaces is largely unexplored. We present an interactive performance installation and demonstrate how concepts from early years practice, in particular schemas, children’s repeated play patterns, can be used as a design framework. We integrated sensors and microcontrollers into objects, puppets, and scenography and invited eight groups of very young children and their grownups to explore the performance. We discuss how schemas are useful as a design and analysis tool in TEY, how schemas need to be expanded to include multi-sensory interactions with hybrid physical-digital objects, and how designers need to consider the roles of adults who scaffold interaction between very young children and their surroundings

socio-ec(h)o: Ambient Intelligence and Gameplay

The socio-ec(h)o project aims to research a generalized ambient intelligent software platform and design models for responsive environments based on the concept of ambient intelligent "ecologies" and group gameplay. The benefits of the research include a software-architecture, ambient intelligence inference engine, and interaction design models for gameplay and responsive environments. The paper will discuss the results of our prototypes for games in responsive environments. These prototypes will "test" our concept of an ambient intelligence "ecology". Current research in interaction and ambient intelligence is narrowly focused on increasing productivity and communication in the office and home, ignoring more complex social and cultural experiences such as games and play. The concept of "ecologies" is an alternative to thinking of technology as a tool or technology as being socially neutral which is a common understanding of the role of technology today on behalf of many technologists. The focus on the interaction of social groups is unavoidable in the context of social situations and interaction in public spaces since most public interaction is group oriented. In relation to games research the project explores the design and implementation of an ambient intelligent system for sensing and display, user modeling, and interaction models based on game structures. Ambient intelligence computing is the embedding of computer technologies and sensors in architectural environments that combined with artificial intelligence software respond to and "reason" about human actions and behaviour within the environment. In the case of socio-ec(h)o, the term "ecologies" is based on the concept of "information ecologies" by Nardi and O’Day (Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999). Nardi and O’Day describe an ecology to be a system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a local environment. They argue that the ecology metaphor shifts the focus to human activity rather than on technology. For example, a library is an ecology for accessing information. It is a space with books, magazines, tapes, films, computers, databases and librarians to help find information. The technology components of the ecology are balanced to shape the environment around human action in accessing information. The concept of "ambient intelligence ecologies" emerged from findings in the previous ec(h)o research project. We discovered that ec(h)o had successfully balanced incongruent elements to form a dynamic and coherent system. Components such as interaction, intelligence, audio display and technology shaped the ambient intelligent environment around the purpose of a museum visit. It could be said that behind the design and system of ec(h)o is an "ambient intelligence ecology" for a museum visit. We were neither conscious of this approach or had it as a project goal, rather it emerged over the course of the research and became evident in the findings. The aim of socio-ec(h)o is to research and test this concept of an "ambient intelligent ecology" as possible principles in designing such environments. This will result in the development of a platform that can support prototypes in interactive narratives and games. In order to test the concept of "ecologies", we need a wide range of activities that are not as specific an application as the museum project of ec(h)o and are outside of the typical productivity or goal-oriented scenarios of most ambient intelligent and wearable technologies research. The paper will discuss the key investigations in socio-ec(h)o: ecologies, game prototypes, gameplay concepts, and multi-users. Informed by the concepts of Nardi and O’Day, ecologies are applied to ambient intelligence environments, and extend the concept beyond information to include interactive narratives and games. The key components of the ambient intelligent ecologies include interaction, intelligence, response and technology. For example, we investigate the balances between such things as wearable technologies in relation to gesture, inference rules and proprioceptive responses. We expect the prototypes to demonstrate the integration of installations with embedded sensors and display technologies. Asoftware architecture will underpin the prototypes and will support the level of reasoning and processing as determined by the ecology-driven design. The environments themselves will be designed to support group movements and actions involving tangible interfaces and audio/visual displays. The play concepts are drawn from a wide range of sources with the goal of encoding a form of play that is between a directed game and open-ended play. We feel this will best allow us to shape and explore a play environment. We draw on James Carse’s concepts of finite and infinite games (Finite and Infinite Games - A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987), Staffan Björk and Jussi Holopainen’s research in game design patterns, and Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman’s game theory (Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambrdige: MIT Press, 2003). The key challenges in the area of multi-users is the design of interfaces and interaction models to support group interaction in the prototype environments, and to extend the research in user modeling to apply to groups rather than individuals, and to respond to the dynamic and changing formation of groups

Situated play in a tangible interface and adaptive audio museum guide

Abstract This paper explores the design issues of situated play within a museum through the study of a museum guide prototype that integrates a tangible interface, audio display, and adaptive modeling. We discuss our use of design ethnography in order to situate our interaction and to investigate the liminal and engagement qualities of a museum visit. The paper provides an overview of our case study and analysis of our user evaluation. We discuss the implications including degrees of balance in the experience design of play in interaction; the challenge in developing a discovery-based information model, and the need for a better understanding of the contextual aspects of tangible user interfaces (TUIs). We conclude that learning effectiveness and functionality can be balanced productively with playful interaction through an adaptive audio and TUI if designers balance the engagement between play and the environment, and the space between imagination and interpretation that links the audio content to the artifacts

EXPERIENCING INTERACTION DESIGN: A PRAGMATIC THEORY

This thesis contributes a theory for the field of interaction design based on philosophical pragmatism. The theory frames interaction design as a pragmatic experience shaped by the inquiries of designers. The contributions of the theory are that it positions the designer at the centre of a theory, describes interaction design practice to be more than a collection of methods and strategies, and provides a sound basis for generating and verifying new knowledge through design. The thesis describes and analyzes two interaction design research projects through self-reflexive accounts that illustrate the proposed theory. The projects are a tangible museum guide and a responsive environment for physical play. The thesis examines the value of understanding interaction design through pragmatism and how interaction design when viewed as experience opens the field up to a new theoretical framework. The two interaction design research projects arc described as design inquiries constituted by a design inquirer, designer intentions, and design rationales. Further descriptions of the projects show interaction design to be comprised of design actions based on judgment and interpretation. Interaction design can be assessed by the degree to which there is integrity between the design inquiry and design actions, as well as by the transferability and discursiveness of the design inquiry findings that are relevant to the wider field of interaction design and related disciplines like human-computer interaction. The implications of the theory lead to new ways of mobilizing interaction design research and interaction design education. The pragmatic theory shows capacity for clear descriptions and analysis of interaction design inquiries in ways that extract and communicate new knowledge from interaction design practice and research. The theory shows interaction design to be a distinct and independent field of inquiry that generates knowledge through design