‘In the game’? Embodied subjectivity in gaming environments

Human-computer interactions are increasingly using more (or all) of the body as a control device. We identify a convergence between everyday bodily actions and activity within digital environments, and a trend towards incorporating natural or mimetic form of movement into gaming devices. We go on to reflect on the nature of player ‘embodiment’ in digital gaming environments by applying insights from the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Three conditions for digital embodiment are proposed, with implications for Calleja’s (2011) Player Involvement Model (PIM) of gaming discussed

Weather-driven interactive video

To build this weather-driven interactive video feature, one ingredient, was necessary to know the conditions of the environment of the user, to do so with greater accuracy, a simplified version of a weather station was made using an Arduino and some sensors to measure the environment, the weather of the user’s location. Another necessary element, was a tool that could use this collected data and convert it in a meaningful way to the user, contextualise the video content. A digital prototype was developed, combining the framework Processing and the data from the Arduino, that would present the user, the viewer with a video, story that would be contextualised to the user environment, current weather conditions. These videos were a set of 6 parallel stories, not simple weather effects but live video production, aiming to improve the connection with the users between the scene actions and their own environment. To evaluate the relationship between the video weather effects, its content and the user’s context, tests were made to measure the impact of this feature on the user experience, resulting in insights, that help to influence and enhance the user’s experience. Some suggest that, contextualising the video setting to the user’s current environment setting, might not be ideal, even detrimental while other might be beneficial to the user experience.Para construir este projeto de vídeo interativo orientado ao clima, era necessário saber as condições do ambiente em que o utilizador se encontrava e, para fazê-lo com maior precisão, foi construída uma versão simplificada de uma estação meteorológica usando um Arduino e alguns sensores, que fariam a medição do ambiente, da localização do usuário. Outro elemento necessário, era uma ferramenta que pudesse utilizar estes dados e convertê-los, de uma forma significativa para o utilizador, contextualizando o conteúdo do vídeo ao seu ambiente para enaltecer a sua experiência. Para tal, foi desenvolvido um protótipo digital, combinando o framework Processing e os dados do Arduino, que apresentaria ao espectador, um vídeo, uma história que seria contextualizada ao seu ambiente, às suas condições meteorológicas atuais. Estes vídeos são um conjunto de 6 histórias paralelas e não apenas simples vídeo com efeitos meteorológicos. São produção de vídeo ao vivo, com o objetivo de melhorar a conexão com os utilizadores, melhor a confecção entre as ações da cena e seu próprio ambiente, o do espetador. Para avaliar a relação entre os efeitos meteorológicos do vídeo, o seu conteúdo e o contexto do usuário, testes foram feitos para medir esse impacto na experiência do utilizador, resultando em percepções que ajudaram a influenciar e aprimorar a experiência do usuário. Estas descobertas sugerem que, contextualizar a configuração do vídeo com o ambiente atual do espectador, não será o ideal, poderá até mesmo ser prejudicial, enquanto os restantes cenários podem ser benéficos para a experiência do utilizador

Proceedings of the SAB'06 Workshop on Adaptive Approaches for Optimizing Player Satisfaction in Computer and Physical Games

These proceedings contain the papers presented at the Workshop on Adaptive approaches for Optimizing Player Satisfaction in Computer and Physical Games held at the Ninth international conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB’06): From Animals to Animats 9 in Rome, Italy on 1 October 2006. We were motivated by the current state-of-the-art in intelligent game design using adaptive approaches. Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques are mainly focused on generating human-like and intelligent character behaviors. Meanwhile there is generally little further analysis of whether these behaviors contribute to the satisfaction of the player. The implicit hypothesis motivating this research is that intelligent opponent behaviors enable the player to gain more satisfaction from the game. This hypothesis may well be true; however, since no notion of entertainment or enjoyment is explicitly defined, there is therefore little evidence that a specific character behavior generates enjoyable games. Our objective for holding this workshop was to encourage the study, development, integration, and evaluation of adaptive methodologies based on richer forms of humanmachine interaction for augmenting gameplay experiences for the player. We wanted to encourage a dialogue among researchers in AI, human-computer interaction and psychology disciplines who investigate dissimilar methodologies for improving gameplay experiences. We expected that this workshop would yield an understanding of state-ofthe- art approaches for capturing and augmenting player satisfaction in interactive systems such as computer games. Our invited speaker was Hakon Steinø, Technical Producer of IO-Interactive, who discussed applied AI research at IO-Interactive, portrayed the future trends of AI in computer game industry and debated the use of academic-oriented methodologies for augmenting player satisfaction. The sessions of presentations and discussions where classified into three themes: Adaptive Learning, Examples of Adaptive Games and Player Modeling. The Workshop Committee did a great job in providing suggestions and informative reviews for the submissions; thank you! This workshop was in part supported by the Danish National Research Council (project no: 274-05-0511). Finally, thanks to all the participants; we hope you found this to be useful!peer-reviewe

Supporting the Cross-cultural Appreciation of Traditional Chinese Puppetry Through a Digital Gesture Library

In recent years, digital cultural heritage has attracted much attention in the HCI domain, but there are currently few studies that focus on enhancing the appreciation of intangible cultural heritage content amongst cross-cultural audiences. This article reports on the development of a Digital Gesture Library to support cross-cultural appreciation of traditional Chinese puppetry. We describe fieldwork with professional puppeteers to understand their practices and art form, which informed the development of the Digital Gesture Library, which uses a three-perspective archive of puppetry gestures and a tangible interface to support cross-cultural audiences’ appreciation of puppetry and encourages further exploration of Chinese culture. We present findings on the efficacy of the Digital Gesture Library from qualitative and quantitative user studies and, from this, discuss the opportunities and challenges for developing digital technology for cross-cultural appreciation of intangible heritage

A Model for Automatic Extraction of Slowdowns From Traffic Sensor Data

The ability to identify slowdowns from a stream of traffic sensor readings in an automatic fashion is a core building block for any application which incorporates traffic behaviour into its analysis process. The methods proposed in this paper treat slowdowns as valley-shaped data sequences that are found below a normal distribution interval. This paper proposes a model for slowdown identification and partitioning across multiple periods of time and it aims to serve as a first layer of knowledge about the traffic environment. The model can be used to extract the regularities from a set of events of interest with recurring behaviour and to assert the consistency of the extracted patterns. The proposed methods are evaluated using real data collected from highway traffic sensor

D3.4 Foresight prospects for the future of EU rural areas

This report is an overview of a sample of existing foresight and scenarios studies carried out at European and global level to identify plausible futures and scenarios for rural areas for time periods up to 2050. It provides an extended update of the SHERPA Working Document ‘Overview of a sample of existing foresight and scenario studies carried out at EU and global levels’ (Brunori and Mazzocchi, 2020), which encompassed a set of foresight studies from approximately between 2009-2019. Though not exclusively focused on rural areas, the potential for significant impacts on the latter was acknowledged in these studies and the report provided important insights in view to the then forthcoming process of the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas of the EU. A most recent set of studies have been appraised, carried out in the period from 2020 onwards. Amongst them, we pay specific attention to the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas of the European Union – and H2020 projects contributing to this consultation –, the JRC ‘Scenarios for EU Rural Areas 2040’, as well as other foresight studies not exclusively targeting rural areas, but addressing mega-trends and delivering outcomes of relevance to the future of rural areas

Dance of the bulrushes: building conversations between social creatures

The interactive installation is in vogue. Interaction design and physical installations are accepted fixtures of modern life, and with these technology-driven installations beginning to exert influence on modes of mass communication and general expectations for user experiences, it seems appropriate to explore the variety of interactions that exist. This paper surveys a number of successful projects with a critical eye toward assessing the type of communication and/or conversation generated between interactive installations and human participants. Moreover, this exploration seeks to identify whether specific tactics and/or technologies are particularly suited to engendering layers of dialogue or ‘conversations’ within interactive physical computing installations. It is asserted that thoughtful designs incorporating self-organizational abilities can foster rich dialogues in which participants and the installation collaboratively generate value in the interaction. To test this hypothesis an interactive installation was designed and deployed in locations in and around London. Details of the physical objects and employed technologies are discussed, and results of the installation sessions are shown to corroborate the key tenets of this argument in addition to highlighting other concerns that are specifically relevant to the broad topic of interactive design

Living Innovation Laboratory Model Design and Implementation

Living Innovation Laboratory (LIL) is an open and recyclable way for multidisciplinary researchers to remote control resources and co-develop user centered projects. In the past few years, there were several papers about LIL published and trying to discuss and define the model and architecture of LIL. People all acknowledge about the three characteristics of LIL: user centered, co-creation, and context aware, which make it distinguished from test platform and other innovation approaches. Its existing model consists of five phases: initialization, preparation, formation, development, and evaluation. Goal Net is a goal-oriented methodology to formularize a progress. In this thesis, Goal Net is adopted to subtract a detailed and systemic methodology for LIL. LIL Goal Net Model breaks the five phases of LIL into more detailed steps. Big data, crowd sourcing, crowd funding and crowd testing take place in suitable steps to realize UUI, MCC and PCA throughout the innovation process in LIL 2.0. It would become a guideline for any company or organization to develop a project in the form of an LIL 2.0 project. To prove the feasibility of LIL Goal Net Model, it was applied to two real cases. One project is a Kinect game and the other one is an Internet product. They were both transformed to LIL 2.0 successfully, based on LIL goal net based methodology. The two projects were evaluated by phenomenography, which was a qualitative research method to study human experiences and their relations in hope of finding the better way to improve human experiences. Through phenomenographic study, the positive evaluation results showed that the new generation of LIL had more advantages in terms of effectiveness and efficiency.Comment: This is a book draf

Environmental Virtual Observatories (EVOs): Prospects for knowledge co-creation and resilience in the Information Age

Developments in technologies are shaping information access globally. This presents opportunities and challenges for understanding the role of new technologies in sustainability research. This article focuses on a suite of technologies termed Environmental Virtual Observatories (EVOs) developed for communicating observations and simulation of environmental processes. A strength of EVOs is that they are open and decentralised, thus democratising flow and ownership of information between multiple actors. However, EVOs are discussed rarely beyond their technical aspects. By evaluating the evolution of EVOs, we illustrate why it is timely to engage with policy and societal aspects as well. While first generation EVOs are primed for scientists, second generation EVOs can have broader implications for knowledge co-creation and resilience through their participatory design

Agents for educational games and simulations

This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications