Geeks and guests: Estimating player's level of experience from board game behaviors

Board games have become promising tools for observing and studying social behaviors in multi-person settings. While traditional methods such as self-report questionnaires are used to analyze game-induced behaviors, there is a growing need to automate such analyses. In this paper, we focus on estimating the levels of board game experience by analyzing a player's confidence and anxiety from visual cues. We use a board game setting to induce relevant interactions, and investigate facial expressions during critical game events. For our analysis, we annotated the critical game events in a multiplayer cooperative board game, using the publicly available MUMBAI board game corpus. Using off-the-shelf tools, we encoded facial behavior in dyadic interactions and built classifiers to predict each player's level of experience. Our results show that considering the experience level of both parties involved in the interaction simultaneously improves the prediction results

The role of playfulness and sensory experiences in design for public health and for ageing well

The chapter provides an insight into the role of design and sensory experiences in public health and ageing well through the lenses of playful design. It presents, through a number of relevant examples, the role of playfulness as a trigger for engaging people and especially older adults with physical exercise through tangible play. Emphasis is placed on the potential, benefits and challenges of designing playful sensory experiences and activities (interventions) for public health and ageing well. Following a review of the relevant literature on playfulness and sensory experiences and health, a number of projects that incorporate playfulness and sensory experiences are presented. This is followed by a presentation of the Active Parks case study. Active Parks co-created an interactive and playful walking trail that offers casual physical activity in one of Lancaster city’s park. Working with the local community and a several key stakeholders a number of interactive and playful multisensory proof-of-concept prototypes were designed, developed and tested in the park. Based on the literature and the aforementioned case study a number of recommendations are provided on how to design playful sensory experiences for public health. This is the first paper of its kind to offer such practical recommendations that aim at public health and playfulness focusing on adults and older users

Engaging people with dementia in designing playful and creative practices:Co-design or co-creation?

Stimulating active, social interactions for people with dementia is an important and timely chal- lenge that merits continuing attention in design research. The idea of using participatory co-design to engage people with dementia is attracting increased interest. In this paper, we draw on our qualitative study that used a playful, participatory arts approach to explore the ways co-design could be implemented in a group of 12 people with dementia and their carers, and developed practical recommendations, in the form of a set of playing cards, for other researchers and caregivers to work in similar ways. The emphasis is on the value of play and playfulness, providing a ‘magic circle’ (Huizinga, 1955) that fosters the required conditions for a co-creative, co-design space. This aims to encourage social interaction between people with dementia, to stimulate imagination and creativity; and engage even the most the reticent, less confident members. Our observations, however, suggest that the exact notion and nature of co-design within the context of working with people with dementia is unclear. We critically explore wheth- er such participatory creative practices that engage people with dementia can be considered as purely co-design. In conclusion, we argue that such interaction is better described as co-creation and that this definition can still embrace considerable contribution and involvement by people with dementia in a co-design process

Exploring the application of gamification in the software development process

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of game elements in software development teams and their impact on the software development process in South African financial institutions. The study was instigated by the numerous tools and procedures to administer software development entanglements, which is an ongoing challenge. In recent years, many researchers have investigated the dynamics and issues pertaining to the development team's behaviour. Most organisations are challenged in their development teams and seek new creative methods and solutions to overcome the obstacles to enhance their software development process. A software development process is identified as a set of actions to generate software applications in which humans are a key factor. Considering that it involves human activity, challenges that arise are a user's engagement, collaboration, communication, and motivation may arise. Many researchers seek to enhance the software development process, and innovative research offers emerging practical concepts and techniques. The study adopted a quantitative research design approach founded on the positivist paradigm followed by a deductive approach. A survey was developed to collect data from four selected South African institutions using a questionnaire of 95 respondents. The study's results contribute to knowledge by illustrating that although project teams are aware of the benefits of game elements, it does not necessarily translate into applying game elements. The study revealed that in the context of project team members, engagement, motivation, and performance positively impact the application of gamification in South African financial institutions. Understanding the factors which impact the application of gamification among financial institutions is neglected. Therefore, this research study sought to address a gap in the literature on gamification. Gamification augments the software development process and subdues the challenges connected to human factors. Nevertheless, applying game elements in a software development team is not as straightforward as it may appear because it is a controversial issue that is yet to be investigated by researchers in this field. The outcome of this study brings forth practical recommendations for future research and industry.School of ComputingM. Sc. (Computing

A framework and serious game to support those with mild cognitive impairment

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonCognitive decline is common in the elderly. As a result, a range of cognitive rehabilitation games have been proposed to supplement or replace traditional rehabilitative training by offering benefits such as improved engagement. This research project focuses on mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an initial stage of cognitive decline that does not affect functioning in daily life, but which may progress towards more serious cognitive deteriorations, notably dementia. Unfortunately, while a variety of serious game frameworks and rehabilitative serious games have been proposed, there is a distinct lack of those which support the distinctive characteristics of MCI patients. Consequently, to optimise the advantages of serious games for MCI, the research proposes the MCI-GaTE (MCI-Game Therapy Experience) framework that may be used to develop serious games as effective cognitive and physical rehabilitation tools. The framework is derived from a combination of a survey of related research literature in the area, analysis of resident profiles from a nursing home, and in-depth interviews with occupational therapists (OTs) who work with MCI patients on a daily basis to help them overcome the disabling effects so that they can carry out everyday tasks. The conceptual framework comprises four sectors that may be used to guide game design and development: an MCI player profile that represents the capabilities of a player with MCI, core gaming elements that support gameful and playful activities, therapeutic elements that support cognitive and physical rehabilitation through tasks and scenarios according to the player’s abilities, and motivational elements to enhance the player’s attitude towards the serious tasks. Together, they provide tailored support for rehabilitation needs and may also serve as a set of comprehensive and established criteria by which an MCI serious game may be evaluated. To demonstrate the use of MCI-GaTE, an immersive and gesture-based serious game, A go!, is designed that exploits the framework to enable MCI-diagnosed players to undertake a series of tailored therapeutic tasks supported by an assigned OT. To this end, a goal-directed design approach is employed, whereby personas, scenarios and journey maps are developed that satisfy the goals of both the MCI player and their OT, and enable the derivation of functional requirements leading to a visual design. A-go! is realised as a responsive and interactive high-fidelity prototype that supports gesture recognition and 3D game objects from a first-person perspective to facilitate immersion without the need for additional worn devices, such as headsets, which would prove impractical for the targeted elderly players. Evaluation with OTs revealed that the immersive game potentially offers more effective and tailored support to MCI patients than traditional methods, contributing new possibilities for enhancing MCI rehabilitative training, while a comparative assessment of MCI-GaTE demonstrated that it provides a comprehensive approach not currently offered by state-of-the-art rehabilitative frameworks.GRACE Healthcare Ltd. & Hong Kong Caritas in Evergreen Home and Integrated Home Care Services, TWGHs Fung Yiu King Hospital HA, Kwai Chung Hospital HA, and TWGHs Jockey Club Rehabilitation Comple

Playful interactions and serious games

Intelligent environments and smart applications require creating engaging interactions with their users, which on one side requires sensing and understanding human behavior, and on the other side carefully engineered application interfaces to keep these interactions sustained and useful over longer periods. Playful interactions and serious games incorporate elements of play for this purpose. As a fundamental human activity, play engages people at every age. This thematic issue explores how novel technologies can fuel fun and entertainment in ambient intelligence applications, and the societal implications and possibilities thereof