Game of drones

In response to the recent European Directive the UK government sanctioned the use of drones by commercial providers subject to pilots holding an approved Drone Pilot Proficiency Certificate (DPPC). As the government anticipated the main use has been in providing services to local authorities that aid in the enforcement of local by-laws. Whilst many commercial providers have followed the traditional path of employing dedicated enforcement officers to pilot the drones, in this paper we present on-going research that ‘gamifies’ the enforcment activities to allow members of the local community to act as enforcement officers. In particular we have worked with retired members of the police and armed services as drone pilots in relation to the enforcement of by-laws relating to parking offences and dog fouling in a small UK city. The initial results indicate that not only does this age group find the game-like activity enjoyable they feel that they are providing an important service to their community

Design fiction:anticipating adoption

When we submitted our work in progress (WiP) paper, “Game of Drones,”1 to the ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY) in 2015, we had no idea whether we’d be derided or praised. The paper presented a fictional account of the Game of Drones research project, which never actually happened. While it might be surprising to some that such a paper passed review and was accepted, it’s important to understand that the intent behind the paper wasn’t subversive; rather, we wanted to produce new knowledge. The purpose of the Game of Drones project was dual to explore a potential future use of drones for civic enforcement activities and advance a program for developing design fiction as a research method. Here, we highlight the enormous potential of design fiction by covering both how drones helped us develop a design fiction, and how design fiction helped us highlight wider issues related to the design of a drone-based system

Game of Drones: Defending Against Drone Terrorism

This Article considers the threat posed by drone terrorism and the technological and legal issues involved in setting up defensive responses. First, the Article provides an overview of current drone technology, legal views on weaponized military drones, and a discussion of the potential appeal of drones as vehicles for terrorism. Next, it discusses the current laws and regulations pertaining to private drones. The Article then lays out the three challenges to defending against drone terrorism: detecting potentially hostile drones, identifying them, and destroying or neutralizing them. Finally, it closes with some proposals to begin to develop the legal and technological architecture to defend against drone terrorism

Game of Drones: Defending Against Drone Terrorism

This Article considers the threat posed by drone terrorism and the technological and legal issues involved in setting up defensive responses. First, the Article provides an overview of current drone technology, legal views on weaponized military drones, and a discussion of the potential appeal of drones as vehicles for terrorism. Next, it discusses the current laws and regulations pertaining to private drones. The Article then lays out the three challenges to defending against drone terrorism: detecting potentially hostile drones, identifying them, and destroying or neutralizing them. Finally, it closes with some proposals to begin to develop the legal and technological architecture to defend against drone terrorism

HASBRO Drone Customization and Enhancement

The Game of Drones team was given the task of customizing and enhancing a new toy drone for Hasbro. The team was specifically tasked with designing custom drone attachments and accessories that more completely gamify the drone-flying experience. The aim of the project is to create better versions of what competitors are offering and create new, original experiences that are more engaging to a small crowd. The design process began with the purchase of four drones in the target price range of $60-$100. The drones were then tested and compared in order to choose one as a baseline for the design. The primary goal of the project was to have a new, original drone by the end of the Spring semester. After generating various concepts, the Game of Drones team selected one main concept to move forward with for the drone design. This concept is a Nerf Rival launcher system that will be mounted on the drone. A launcher mechanism was 3D-modeled using SolidWorks and then a prototype was 3D printed and assembled. Experiments were performed on the launcher mechanism prototype to ensure that it was within the required kinetic energy limits specified by Hasbro. The Game of Drones team also tested the lift capacity of the drone in order to ensure that the drone could handle the additional weight of the selected concept. The tested lift capacity of the drone was significantly higher than the estimated weight of the Nerf Rival system, so the team concluded that the drone would be able to handle the selected concept. The next step was to model and manufacture the different components of the blaster system and test them against test matrices. Any components that failed to pass the criteria of the test matrices were then redesigned and manufactured. After multiple redesigns and builds the Game of Drones team successfully created a working prototype. This prototype can fly and shoot Nerf Rival balls, which means the team has completed their task of creating a new, original drone experience that is more engaging to a small crowd

Pushing the limits of design fiction:the case for fictional research papers

This paper considers how design fictions in the form of ‘imaginary abstracts’ can be extended into complete ‘fictional papers’. Imaginary abstracts are a type of design fiction that are usually included within the content of ‘real’ research papers, they comprise brief accounts of fictional problem frames, prototypes, user studies and findings. Design fiction abstracts have been proposed as a means to move beyond solutionism to explore the potential societal value and consequences of new HCI concepts. In this paper we contrast the properties of imaginary abstracts, with the properties of a published paper that presents fictional research, Game of Drones. Extending the notion of imaginary abstracts so that rather than including fictional abstracts within a ‘non-fiction’ research paper, Game of Drones is fiction from start to finish (except for the concluding paragraph where the fictional nature of the paper is revealed). In this paper we review the scope of design fiction in HCI research before contrasting the properties of imaginary abstracts with the properties of our example fictional research paper. We argue that there are clear merits and weaknesses to both approaches, but when used tactfully and carefully fictional research papers may further empower HCI’s burgeoning design discourse with compelling new methods

Spectrum, Volume 40, Number 8

Highlights include: Official SHU Tartan announced -- SHU mission and vision statement gets an update -- Boko Haram releases 104 kidnapped Nigerian girls -- Students support relay for life with strike out cancer -- Engineering program hosts game of drones -- Getting married at SHU -- Kappa Delta hosts Shamrock the Runway -- Rowing team to host two spring regattas -- Club baseball prepares for second half of season -- Equestrian team prepares for final competitions -- Kickline becomes a club spor

Game vaporware as design fictions

In this research we examine games, and games hardware, that can be classed as ‘Vaporware’. More specifically software that was never written, or hardware that was never built, and consequently no one ever played. In particular we are considering such vaporware as examples of ‘Design Fiction’ as they once represented speculative visions of the future based on emerging technology. Vaporware is a term generally used to describe products that are announced to the general public but are never actually manufactured. Whereas design fiction is a term used to describe plausible ‘diegetic prototypes’ that are built, or suggested, to create an opportunity for discourse about possible technological futures. Whilst it could be argued vaporware games are simply failed products that were justifiably scrapped before joining the long lists of come-to-nothing games and consoles, by reviewing examples we offer an alternative view that they can serve as objects of discourse for exposing the potential futures of video games and thus could be considered in terms of design fiction. To add further weight to the argument that games can be useful as design fictions we then consider “Game of Drones”, an example of a design fiction that pivots around a game element, to illustrate how the deliberate use of design fiction can stimulate discourse around game futures (in this case the growing promotion of ‘gamified’ services as means of engaging users). Whilst the notion of designing games that will never be built may seem paradoxical in relation to the Games industry’s predominantly commercial aims, we believe that the deliberate adoption of design fiction as a practice within game design would facilitate the emergence of meaningful discussions around future gaming without the frustrations induced by vaporware

Design fiction as world building

Design Fiction has garnered considerable attention during recent years yet still remains pre-paradigmatic. Put differently there are concurrent,but incongruent, perspectives on what Design Fiction is and how to use it. Acknowledging this immaturity, we assert that the best way to contribute to the establishment of an evidence-based first paradigm, is by adopting a research through design approach. Thus, in this paper we describe ‘research into design fiction, done through design fiction’. This paper describes the creation of two Design Fictions through which we consider the relationship between narrative and Design Fiction and argue that links between the two are often drawn erroneously. We posit that Design Fiction is in fact a ‘world building’ activity, with no inherent link to ‘narrative’ or ‘storytelling’. The first Design Fiction explores a near future world containing a system for gamified drone-based civic enforcement and the second is based on a distant future in which hardware and algorithms capable of detecting empathy are used as part of everyday communications. By arguing it is world building, we aim to contribute towards the disambiguation of current Design Fiction discourse and the promotion of genre conventions, and, in doing so to reinforce the foundations upon which a first stable paradigm can be constructed

Game of Drones: Rolling the Dice with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Privacy

This Article offers a practical three-part test for courts and law enforcement to utilize when faced with drone and privacy issues. Specifically addressing the question: how should courts analyze the Fourth Amendment’s protection against ‘unreasonable searches’ in the context of drones? The Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment jurisprudence produced an intricate framework to address issues arising out of the intersection of technology and privacy interests. In prominent decisions, including United States v. Katz, California v. Ciraolo, Kyllo v. United States, and most notably, United States v. Jones, the Court focused on whether the use of a single technology, such as the use of photography, audio recording, heat sensors, or GPS violated an individual’s Fourth Amendment right to privacy. But now, one of the most complex and innovative technological advances in recent years, the unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, has created an especially difficult issue for courts. Because a single drone can be fitted with multiple technologies, courts need to employ a multidimensional analysis to determine whether an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights have been violated. Thus, with technology advancing quicker than the Court can address, lower courts are left without direction on how to handle this important constitutional quandary, leaving individual right to privacy vulnerable. This Article builds on other scholars’ work promoting a “technology-based” definition of what constitutes a search, by creating a three-factor test for courts to utilize when faced with a drone privacy issue. Specifically arguing that courts should apply a presumption that a warrant is necessary absent exigent circumstances when law enforcement uses drones to survey an individual’s home or curtilage by considering: 1) What type of technology is the drone employing in the search, 2) What is the extent of the surveillance?; and 3) What is the extent of the privacy interference? No longer are the days of addressing the use of a singular technology, as courts will soon, if not already, be inundated with cases involving the intersection of multiple technologies through the use of drones and privacy. Although other scholarship explores drones and privacy concerns, this Article is novel in that it offers a practical approach for courts and law enforcement to utilize, while offering the historical framework for each factor. Guiding courts and law enforcement to handle privacy concerns with the use of drones will provide a structured and approachable analysis that can apply regardless of the drone-in-question’s capabilities and the amount of technologies used