Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

The Invention of Good Games: Understanding Learning Design in Commercial Videogames

This work sought to help inform the design of educational digital games by the studying the design of successful commercial videogames. The main thesis question was: How does a commercially and critically successful modern video game support the learning that players must accomplish in order to succeed in the game (i.e. get to the end or win)? This work takes a two-pronged approach to supporting the main argument, which is that the reason we can learn about designing educational games by studying commercial games is that people already learn from games and the best ones are already quite effective at teaching players what they need to learn in order to succeed in the game. The first part of the research establishes a foundation for the argument, namely that accepted pedagogy can be found in existing commercial games. The second part of the work proposes new methods for analysing games that can uncover mechanisms used to support learning in games which can be employed even if those games were not originally designed as educational objects. In order to support the claim that ‘good’ commercial videogames already embody elements of sound pedagogy an explicit connection is made between game design and formally accepted theory and models in teaching and learning. During this phase of the work a significant concern was raised regarding the classification of games as ‘good’, so a new methodology using Borda Counts was devised and tested that combines various disjoint subjective reviews and rankings from disparate sources in non-trivial manner that accounts for relative standings. Complementary to that was a meta-analysis of the criteria used to select games chosen as subjects of study as reported by researchers. Then, several games were chosen using this new ranking method and analysed using another new methodology that was designed for this work, called Instructional Ethology. This is a new methodology for game design deconstruction and analysis that would allows the extraction of information about mechanisms used to support learning. This methodology combines behavioural and structural analysis to examine how commercial games support learning by examining the game itself from the perspective of what the game does. Further, this methodology can be applied to the analysis of any software system and offers a new approach to studying any interactive software. The results of the present study offered new insights into how several highly successful commercial games support players while they learn what they must learn in order to succeed in those games. A new design model was proposed, known as the 'Magic Bullet' that allows designers to visualize the relative proportions of potential learning in a game to assess the potential of a design

Advancements in frameworks for educational games through sound software engineering principles.

Educational games have steadily entered classrooms as a means of challenging advanced students and tutoring those lacking comprehension. However, without adequate educational benefits, instructors are struggling to continually justify the marginal value added of using these programs. It is the intent of this thesis to demonstrate that sound software engineering principles can improve the framework of educational games. First, the core framework requirements of computer-based educational games are outlined. Current educational games are then evaluated based on their ability to meet these requirements. From this analysis, necessary architectural changes are recommended to best facilitate future game advancements. Finally, to demonstrate the viability of the changes, a functional, elementary level educational game is developed based on the recommended modular architecture with low coupling and high cohesion

Tangible user interfaces : past, present and future directions

In the last two decades, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as a new interface type that interlinks the digital and physical worlds. Drawing upon users' knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, TUIs show a potential to enhance the way in which people interact with and leverage digital information. However, TUI research is still in its infancy and extensive research is required in or- der to fully understand the implications of tangible user interfaces, to develop technologies that further bridge the digital and the physical, and to guide TUI design with empirical knowledge. This paper examines the existing body of work on Tangible User In- terfaces. We start by sketching the history of tangible user interfaces, examining the intellectual origins of this field. We then present TUIs in a broader context, survey application domains, and review frame- works and taxonomies. We also discuss conceptual foundations of TUIs including perspectives from cognitive sciences, phycology, and philoso- phy. Methods and technologies for designing, building, and evaluating TUIs are also addressed. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limita- tions of TUIs and chart directions for future research

Paradigm shift : how the evolution of two generations of home consoles, arcades, and computers influenced American culture, 1985-1995.

As of 2016, unlike many popular media forms found here in the United States, video games possess a unique influence, one that gained its own a large widespread appeal, but also its own distinct cultural identity created by millions of fans both here stateside and across the planet. Yet, despite its significant contributions, outside of the gaming's arcade golden age of the early 1980s, the history of gaming post Atari shock goes rather unrepresented as many historians simply refuse to discuss the topic for trivial reasons thus leaving a rather noticeable gap within the overall history. One such important aspect not covered by the majority of the scholarship and the primary focus of thesis argues that the history of early modern video games in the North American market did not originate during the age of Atari in the 1970s and early 1980s. Instead, the real genesis of today's market and popular gaming culture began with the creation and establishment of the third and fourth generation of video games, which firmly solidified gaming as both a multi-billion dollar industry and as an accepted form of entertainment in the United States. This project focuses on the ten-year resurrection of the US video game industry from 1985 to 1995. Written as a case study, the project looks into the three main popular hardware mediums of the late 1980s and 1990s through a pseudo-business, cultural, and technological standpoint that ran parallel with the current events at the time. Through this evaluation of the home consoles, personal computers, and the coin operated arcade machines, gaming in America transformed itself from a perceived fad into a serious multi-billion dollar industry while at the same time, slowly gained popular acceptance. Furthermore, this study will examine the country's love-hate relationship with gaming by looking into reactions towards a Japanese-dominated market, the coming of popular computer gaming, the influence of the bit-wars, and the issue of violence that aided in the establishment of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). In order to undertake such a massive endeavor, the project utilizes various sources that include newspapers, magazine articles, US government documents, scholarly articles, video game manuals, commercials, and popular websites to complete the work. Furthermore, another vital source came from firsthand experience playing several of these popular video games from across the decades in question, which include such consoles as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, Genesis, home computer, and several notable arcade titles. The project's goal and its four main chapters serves as a historical viewpoint of towards neglected video game industry during the third and fourth generation of gaming and the influence it possess in the United States... 'Paradigm Shift...' examines the often-overlooked early modern history of video games from 1985-1995 and how they would go on to become a larger part of American culture. Each chapter attempts to explain the growing influence gaming has had via home console, computer, and arcades in the US market, and in turn show the origins of today's modern gaming market... The significance of 'Paradigm Shift...' comes down to one word, acceptance. Despite the controversy it generated before and during the ten critical years of its rebirth, what the gaming industry did right was breaking the notion that video games were simply a popular craze. Unlike the second generation that only fed this belief, the third and fourth generation of gaming proved this assumption wrong. With countless successful launches of influential games across the decade, video games slowly gained the acceptance of both gamers and non-gamers alike allowing gaming to ingrain itself within the American culture. By 1995, the foundation of both the modern gaming industry and culture came into existence, and it would only become greater as the years progressed thanks to the efforts of Nintendo, Sega, and countless other developers and licensees that kept video games from falling to the wayside during this period of growth and uncertainty

Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author

The question motivating this review paper is, how can computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn- ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory, and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in- teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that, as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency. Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip- ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in- teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity

Mental vision:a computer graphics platform for virtual reality, science and education

Despite the wide amount of computer graphics frameworks and solutions available for virtual reality, it is still difficult to find a perfect one fitting at the same time the many constraints of research and educational contexts. Advanced functionalities and user-friendliness, rendering speed and portability, or scalability and image quality are opposite characteristics rarely found into a same approach. Furthermore, fruition of virtual reality specific devices like CAVEs or wearable systems is limited by their costs and accessibility, being most of these innovations reserved to institutions and specialists able to afford and manage them through strong background knowledge in programming. Finally, computer graphics and virtual reality are a complex and difficult matter to learn, due to the heterogeneity of notions a developer needs to practice with before attempting to implement a full virtual environment. In this thesis we describe our contributions to these topics, assembled in what we called the Mental Vision platform. Mental Vision is a framework composed of three main entities. First, a teaching/research oriented graphics engine, simplifying access to 2D/3D real-time rendering on mobile devices, personal computers and CAVE systems. Second, a series of pedagogical modules to introduce and practice computer graphics and virtual reality techniques. Third, two advanced VR systems: a wearable, lightweight and handsfree mixed reality setup, and a four sides CAVE designed through off the shelf hardware. In this dissertation we explain our conceptual, architectural and technical approach, pointing out how we managed to create a robust and coherent solution reducing complexity related to cross-platform and multi-device 3D rendering, and answering simultaneously to contradictory common needs of computer graphics and virtual reality for researchers and students. A series of case studies evaluates how Mental Vision concretely satisfies these needs and achieves its goals on in vitro benchmarks and in vivo scientific and educational projects