Full-body motion-based game interaction for older adults

Older adults in nursing homes often lead sedentary lifestyles, which reduces their life expectancy. Full-body motion-control games provide an opportunity for these adults to remain active and engaged; these games are not designed with age-related impairments in mind, which prevents the games from being leveraged to increase the activity levels of older adults. In this paper, we present two studies aimed at developing game design guidelines for full-body motion controls for older adults experiencing age-related changes and impairments. Our studies also demonstrate how full-body motion-control games can accommodate a variety of user abilities, have a positive effect on mood and, by extension, the emotional well-being of older adults. Based on our studies, we present seven guidelines for the design of full-body interaction in games. The guidelines are designed to foster safe physical activity among older adults, thereby increasing their quality of life. Copyright 2012 ACM

Designing wheelchair-based movement games

People using wheelchairs have access to fewer sports and other physically stimulating leisure activities than nondisabled persons, and often lead sedentary lifestyles that negatively influence their health. While motion- based video games have demonstrated great potential of encouraging physical activity among nondisabled players, the accessibility of motion-based games is limited for persons with mobility disabilities, thus also limiting access to the potential health benefits of playing these games. In our work, we address this issue through the design of wheelchair-accessible motion-based game controls. We present KINECTWheels, a toolkit designed to integrate wheelchair movements into motion-based games. Building on the toolkit, we developed Cupcake Heaven, a wheelchair-based video game designed for older adults using wheelchairs, and we created Wheelchair Revolution, a motion-based dance game that is accessible to both persons using wheelchairs and nondisabled players. Evaluation results show that KINECTWheels can be applied to make motion-based games wheelchair-accessible, and that wheelchair-based games engage broad audiences in physically stimulating play. Through the application of the wheelchair as an enabling technology in games, our work has the potential of encouraging players of all ages to develop a positive relationship with their wheelchair

Designing Familiar Open Surfaces

While participatory design makes end-users part of the design process, we might also want the resulting system to be open for interpretation, appropriation and change over time to reflect its usage. But how can we design for appropriation? We need to strike a good balance between making the user an active co-constructor of system functionality versus making a too strong, interpretative design that does it all for the user thereby inhibiting their own creative use of the system. Through revisiting five systems in which appropriation has happened both within and outside the intended use, we are going to show how it can be possible to design with open surfaces. These open surfaces have to be such that users can fill them with their own interpretation and content, they should be familiar to the user, resonating with their real world practice and understanding, thereby shaping its use

Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connections -- A Report of the Task Force on Children's Learning and the Arts: Birth to Age Eight

Provides guiding principles and recommendations to organizations to support the development of arts-based early childhood programs and resources

Before Talkies : The Voice of Gesture

Relative to comedy, gesture engenders a universal language by which audiences experience multiple facets of humor. Holding fast to the desire to share joy and lightness through dance, creating original work of a humorous nature, be it whimsical, farcical, clown like, or tongue-in-cheek, is at the core of my current artistic enterprise- setting my work apart from many of the mainstream dances being made today. I have investigated thoroughly the connections between gesture and humor: i.e., What is it about everyday movements that make us laugh? What are the standards we use to gauge the effectiveness of comedic movement? When do we “cross the line” from funny to grotesque to contemptible? Throughout my MFA studies at Montclair State University, my previous expertise in dance theatre has become further informed and influenced by these investigations into humor. I am committed to continued creative development within the dance theatre genre, specifically the expressive nature of the form and its indelible link to the relationship between movement and meaning. These are the informing principals of my research. In my original silent film, Before Talkies, it is the communicative power of gesture that gives a voice to our heroine Lillian, her sidekick Jingles, the unlucky-in-love Oliver, and the no-name villain. In crafting four distinctive styles and impetuses for movement, I have a made a unique physical portrait for each of the archetypal individuals

The P scales: level descriptors P1 to P8

"These are the level descriptors for pupils working below level 1 of the national curriculum... To support teachers in making judgements about pupils’ attainment below level 1 of the national curriculum" - Back cover. This booklet is part of the DVD and print booklet package 'Using the P scales: assessing, moderating and reporting pupil attainment at levels P1 to P8' (QCA/09/4060

Feet movement in desktop 3D interaction

In this paper we present an exploratory work on the use of foot movements to support fundamental 3D interaction tasks. Depth cameras such as the Microsoft Kinect are now able to track users' motion unobtrusively, making it possible to draw on the spatial context of gestures and movements to control 3D UIs. Whereas multitouch and mid-air hand gestures have been explored extensively for this purpose, little work has looked at how the same can be accomplished with the feet. We describe the interaction space of foot movements in a seated position and propose applications for such techniques in three-dimensional navigation, selection, manipulation and system control tasks in a 3D modelling context. We explore these applications in a user study and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this modality for 3D UIs