| Player Performance, Satisfaction, and Video Game Enjoyment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-12 | |
| Christoph Klimmt; Christopher Blake; Dorothée Hefner; Peter Vorderer; Christian Roth | |||
| An experiment (N = 74) was conducted to investigate the impact of game
difficulty and player performance on game enjoyment. Participants played a
First Person Shooter game with systematically varied levels of difficulty.
Satisfaction with performance and game enjoyment were assessed after playing.
Results are not fully in line with predictions derived from flow and
attribution theory and suggest players to (1) change their view on their own
performance with its implications for enjoyment with increasing game experience
and (2) to switch strategically between different sources of fun, thus
maintaining a (somewhat) positive experience even when performance-based
enjoyment is low. Keywords: Video games; entertainment; enjoyment; performance; flow; attribution theory | |||
| Analysis of Area Revisitation Patterns in World of Warcraft | | BIBA | Full-Text | 13-23 | |
| Ruck Thawonmas; Keisuke Yoshida; Jing-Kai Lou; Kuan-Ta Chen | |||
| This paper analyzes area revisitation patterns in World of Warcraft (WoW). Online-game players roam a number of in-game areas while playing the game and revisit some of them with different personal reasons. To clarify this issue, we conduct a large-scale analysis using WoW access log collected for two years consisting of more than sixty thousand characters and have discovered four main groups of area revisitation patterns. We describe also in the paper how our findings can be utilized to support both game developers and players. | |||
| Scaling the Level of Difficulty in Single Player Video Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 24-35 | |
| Maria-Virginia Aponte; Guillaume Levieux; Stéphane Natkin | |||
| In this paper, we discuss the interest and the need to evaluate the
difficulty of single player video games. We first show the importance of
difficulty, drawing from semiotics to explain the link between
tension-resolution cycles, and challenge with the player's enjoyment. Then, we
report related work on automatic gameplay analysis. We show through a simple
experimentation that automatic video game analysis is both practicable and can
lead to interesting results. We argue that automatic analysis tools are limited
if they do not consider difficulty from the player point of view. The last
section provides a player and Game Design oriented definition of the challenge
and difficulty notions in games. As a consequence we derive the property that
must fulfill a measurable definition of difficulty. Keywords: video games; challenge; difficulty; learning; evaluation | |||
| Dance Motion Control of a Humanoid Robot Based on Real-Time Tempo Tracking from Musical Audio Signals | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 36-47 | |
| Naoto Nakahara; Koji Miyazaki; Hajime Sakamoto; Takashi X. Fujisawa; Noriko Nagata; Ryohei Nakatsu | |||
| This paper proposes a system that controls and generates a humanoid robot's
dance motion in real-time using the timing of beats in musical audio signals.
The system tracks changes in tempo and calculate the integration value of a
decibel by analyzing audio signals in real-time. It uses the information to add
changes to the robot's dance motion. Beat intervals and the integration value
of decibels are used to change the tempo and range of the robot's dance motion
respectively. We propose a method to synchronize dance motion of robot with
musical beat, changing the robot's dance motion interactively according to the
input value. Keywords: Robot; Dance Motion; Beat Tracking; Music Understanding; Human Computer
Interaction | |||
| Marker-Less Tracking for Multi-layer Authoring in AR Books | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 48-59 | |
| Kiyoung Kim; Jonghee Park; Woontack Woo | |||
| An Augmented Reality (AR) book is an application that applies AR
technologies to physical books for providing a new experience to users. In this
paper, we propose a new marker-less tracking method for the AR book. The main
goal of the tracker is not only to recognize many pages, but also to compute 6
DOF camera pose. As a result, we can augment different virtual contents
according to the corresponding page. For this purpose, we use a multi-core
programming approach that separates the page recognition module from the
tracking module. In the page recognition module, highly distinctive Scale
Invariant Features Transform (SIFT) features are used. In the tracking module,
a coarse-to-fine approach is exploited for fast frame-to-frame matching. Our
tracker provides more than 30 frames per second. In addition to the tracker, we
explain multi-layer based data structure for maintaining the AR book. A
GUI-based authoring tool is also shown to validate feasibility of the tracker
and data structures. The proposed algorithm would be helpful to create various
AR applications that require multiple planes tracking. Keywords: augmented reality; marker-less tracking; layer authoring; page recognition;
AR book; SIFT | |||
| Personal Space Modeling for Human-Computer Interaction | | BIBA | Full-Text | 60-72 | |
| Toshitaka Amaoka; Hamid Laga; Suguru Saito; Masayuki Nakajima | |||
| In this paper we focus on the Personal Space (PS) as a non-verbal communication concept to build a new Human Computer Interaction. The analysis of people positions with respect to their PS gives an idea on the nature of their relationship. We propose to analyze and model the PS using Computer Vision (CV), and visualize it using Computer Graphics. For this purpose, we define the PS based on four parameters: distance between people, their face orientations, age, and gender. We automatically estimate the first two parameters from image sequences using CV technology, while the two other parameters are set manually. Finally, we calculate the two-dimensional relationship of multiple persons and visualize it as 3D contours in real-time. Our method can sense and visualize invisible and unconscious PS distributions and convey the spatial relationship of users by an intuitive visual representation. The results of this paper can be used for Human Computer Interaction in public spaces. | |||
| Technology-Enhanced Role-Play for Intercultural Learning Contexts | | BIBA | Full-Text | 73-84 | |
| Mei Yii Lim; Michael Kriegel; Ruth Aylett; Sibylle Enz; Natalie Vannini; Lynne Hall; Paola Rizzo; Karin Leichtenstern | |||
| Role-play can be a powerful educational tool, especially when dealing with social or ethical issues. However while other types of education activity have been routinely technology-enhanced for some time, the specific problems of supporting educational role-play with technology have only begun to be tackled recently. Within the eCIRCUS project we have designed a framework for technology-enhanced role-play with the aim of educating adolescents about intercultural empathy. This work was influenced by related fields such as intelligent virtual agents, interactive narrative and pervasive games. In this paper we will describe the different components of our role-play technology by means of a prototype implementation of this technology, the ORIENT showcase. Furthermore we will present some preliminary results of our first evaluation trials of ORIENT. | |||
| MusicCommentator: Generating Comments Synchronized with Musical Audio Signals by a Joint Probabilistic Model of Acoustic and Textual Features | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 85-97 | |
| Kazuyoshi Yoshii; Masataka Goto | |||
| This paper presents a system called MusicCommentator that suggests possible
comments on appropriate temporal positions in a musical audio clip. In an
online video sharing service, many users can provide free-form text comments
for temporal events occurring in clips not for entire clips. To emulate the
commenting behavior of users, we propose a joint probabilistic model of audio
signals and comments. The system trains the model by using existing clips and
users' comments given to those clips. Given a new clip and some of its
comments, the model is used to estimate what temporal positions could be
commented on and what comments could be added to those positions. It then
concatenates possible words by taking language constraints into account. Our
experimental results showed that using existing comments in a new clip resulted
in improved accuracy for generating suitable comments to it. Keywords: Audio and language processing; user communication modeling; probabilistic
music-comment association; comment generation | |||
| MiniDiver: A Novel Mobile Media Playback Interface for Rich Video Content on an iPhone™ | | BIBA | Full-Text | 98-109 | |
| Gregor Miller; Sidney Fels; Matthias Finke; Will Motz; Walker Eagleston; Chris Eagleston | |||
| We describe our new mobile media content browser called a MiniDiver. MiniDiving considers media browsing as a personal experience that is viewed, personalized, saved, shared and annotated. When placed on a mobile platform, such as the iPhone™, consideration of the particular interface elements lead to new ways to experience media content. The MiniDiver interface elements currently supports multi-camera selection, video hyperlinks, history mechanisms and semantic and episodic video search. We compare performance of the MiniDiver on different media streams to illustrate its feasibility. | |||
| Children's Choice of Games: The Influence of Prosocial Tendency and Education-Level | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 110-119 | |
| Vivian Hseuh-Hua Chen; Weirong Lin; Chiew Woon Ng; Su Li Chai; Angeline Cheok Eng Khoo; Henry Been-Lirn Duh | |||
| This study employed the uses and gratifications approach to examine
children's choice of gaming genres. The measure of prosocial behavioral
tendency was used as an approximation of a child's offline gratification, and
this was related to the exposure to three different genres of games (violent,
aggressive and prosocial). The influence of education level was also taken into
consideration. Data was compiled and analyzed from a survey conducted on
Singaporean schoolchildren (N = 2,640). Overall results supported the
supplementary model of gratification seeking behavior. Children with higher
prosocial scores spent significantly less time playing violent and aggressive
games, whereas children of a higher education level spent more time playing
games of all genres. The results are presented and discussed. Keywords: Uses and Gratifications; Games; Prosocial Orientations | |||
| Player Experience Evaluation: An Approach Based on the Personal Construct Theory | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 120-131 | |
| Francesco Bellotti; Riccardo Berta; Alessandro De Gloria; Ludovica Primavera | |||
| The scientific and industrial community related to the videogame (VG)
research and business is ever more concerned about the need for proper
evaluation and assessment of games. This paper proposes an assessment
methodology based on the Personal Construct Theory (PCT). The PCT allows
identifying constructs can be processed to define a space where domain-relevant
items -- VGs, in our case -- can be positioned. The main praise of PCT is that
the test-leading researcher does not supply users with a predefined set of
constructs, which may bias the evaluation process. Moreover, PCT joins
qualitative aspects with a quantitative evaluation of their relevance, which is
particularly useful for an operational approach also to game design. In this
paper, we study the application of the PCT to the particular case of the
evaluation of whole typologies of VGs. Discussing the results, we draw and
highlight that VGs are perceived as engaging challenges where personal
abilities are continuously put to the test. This stresses the reactive nature
of VGs and the fact that players like being stimulated and developing and
testing their reaction capabilities. Keywords: Videogames; User Experience; videogame testing and evaluation; Repertory
Grid Technique; Personal Construct Theory | |||
| A Plot-Manipulation Algebra to Support Digital Storytelling | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 132-144 | |
| Börje Karlsson; Simone D. J. Barbosa; Antonio L. Furtado; Marco A. Casanova | |||
| Plot composition is examined here at a logic design level, an intermediate
stage that comes next to the conceptual level wherein the intended narrative
genre is specified. An abstract data structure is proposed to represent plots,
together with an algebra for manipulating the data structure. Our purpose is to
adapt for narratives the strategy applied to databases by Codd's relational
model. The basic operators of our Plot-Manipulation Algebra (PMA) are
introduced in view of the four fundamental relations between events that we
identified in a previous work. A logic programming prototype was implemented in
order to run examples using the algebra. Keywords: storytelling; narratology; plots; logic design; algebraic formalisms | |||
| Distributed Episode Control System for Interactive Narrative Entertainment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 145-156 | |
| Jun'ichi Hoshino; Katsutoki Hamana; Shiratori Kazuto; Atsushi Nakano | |||
| We propose the massive action control system (MACS) for interactive
narrative entertainment. MACS determines the action priorities for characters
based in part on their own internal states, such as the motivation behind the
action, feeling, and personality. MACS selects a behavior control module,
called an episode tree, of about 1000 events, which is divided into action
types based on these internal states and external situations. We demonstrate
the effectiveness of the system with the Spilant World interactive animation
contents at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Japan,
and NAMCO amusement park. Keywords: narrative entertainment; massive action; episode tree; lifelike | |||
| Virtual Noctiluca: Interaction between Light and Water Using Real-Time Fluid Simulation and 3D Motion Measurement | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 157-166 | |
| Kyouhei Aida; Noriko Nagata | |||
| In recent years, with the rapid improvement of the performance of computers,
new possibilities for real-time simulation technologies are emerging. In this
study, we simulated the behavior of water in real time and combined this
simulation with a measurement of the user's 3D motion to simulate the
interaction between water and light, as observed in Noctiluca. Noctiluca is
oceanic plankton that produces light when physically stimulated. Stirring the
surface of water containing Noctiluca in a completely dark place causes the
surface to glow, and an observer can gain the mystical and fantastic experience
of watching the glow becoming dim with the flow of the water. Keywords: Interactive art; GPU; stereo vision; Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics;
animation; illumination | |||
| Sound and Movement Visualization in the AR-Jazz Scenario | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 167-172 | |
| Cristina Portalés; Carlos D. Perales | |||
| This paper describes AR-Jazz, an augmented reality application designed to
visualize sound and movements in live jazz performances. The augmented scenario
is achieved within the program Max MSP Jitter, with an integrated inertial
sensor and a microphone. As a display, a cinema screen is used. The application
was first shown at the SedaJazz Festival 2007 in Valencia (Spain). In first
place, a workshop was made in order the musicians to become familiar with the
application. Secondly, a live performance was shown. The experience is
described in this paper. Keywords: augmented reality; jam session; sound visualization; inertial sensor | |||
| Experimenting with Sound Immersion in an Arts and Crafts Museum | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 173-178 | |
| Fatima-Zahra Kaghat; Cécile Le Prado; Areti Damala; Pierre Cubaud | |||
| Technical museums are goods targets for experimenting with sound immersion
and soundscape authoring. This paper presents an immersive sound system
emitting audio content. Experimentations were conducted with a wired,
proof-of-concept prototype and two wireless devices. Our system takes into
consideration the position of museum visitors as well as their orientation and
visual vector. In contrast with other approaches, tracking and rendering are
executed locally and in real-time by the visitor's device. Keywords: museum; immersion; edutainment; sound spatialization; head-tracking;
soundscape | |||
| BayesianBand: Jam Session System Based on Mutual Prediction by User and System | | BIBA | Full-Text | 179-184 | |
| Tetsuro Kitahara; Naoyuki Totani; Ryosuke Tokuami; Haruhiro Katayose | |||
| One kind of pleasure that jam sessions bring is deciding a melody or an accompaniment while mutually predicting what the other participants are going to play. We propose a jam session system, called BayesianBand, which provides this kind of musical pleasure through sessions with computers. With this system, the chord progression in a session is not fixed in advance but rather is determined in real time by predicting the user's melody. The user, while improvising, is also expected to predict the chord progression generated by the system; accordingly, a cooperative jam session based on the mutual prediction will be achieved. To build this system, we constructed a model for melody prediction and chord inference based on a Bayesian network. | |||
| v.morish'09: A Morphing-Based Singing Design Interface for Vocal Melodies | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 185-190 | |
| Masanori Morise; Masato Onishi; Hideki Kawahara; Haruhiro Katayose | |||
| This paper describes a singing design method based on morphing, the design
and development of an intuitive interface to assist morphing-based singing
design. The proposed interface has a function for real-time morphing, based on
simple operation with a mouse, and an editor to control the singing features in
detail. The user is able to enhance singing voices efficiently by using these
two functions. In this paper, we discuss the requirement for an interface to
assist in morphing-based singing design, and develop an interface to fulfill
the requirement. Keywords: Singing voice synthesis; voice morphing technique; user interface design | |||
| New Hitch Haiku: An Interactive Renku Poem Composition Supporting Tool Applied for Sightseeing Navigation System | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 191-196 | |
| Xiaofeng Wu; Naoko Tosa; Ryohei Nakatsu | |||
| As is well-known, cultures are rooted in their unique regions, histories and
languages. Communication media have been developed to circulate these cultural
characteristics. As a part of our research "Cultural Computing", which means
the translation of cultures using scientific methods representing essential
aspects of Japanese culture[1], an interactive Renku poem generation supporting
system was developed to study the reproduction of a traditional Japanese Renku
by computer. This system extended the functionality of our previous Hitch-Haiku
system to the Renku based on same association method and attached more cultural
characteristics on it: the Renku verse displayed on the Japanese-style color
pattern which represents the same season in Renku Kigo (seasonal reference) and
the generated Renku verse including the information of sightseeing place. Keywords: Haiku; Renku; Renku generation; Interactive art; Association | |||
| Using Persuasive Technologies for Energy Consumption Management: A South African Case Study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 197-203 | |
| Pieter Joubert; Sumarie Roodt | |||
| In this paper the authors evaluate Chevron's Energyville, as an example of a
persuasive technology, which is used to change attitudes and behaviours. The
authors want to explore this simulation in terms of it's potential to be
transplanted as a persuasive technology into the South African context, given
the fact that South Africa is experiencing an energy crisis currently and will
continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Keywords: Persuasive Technology; Energy; Energyville; Captology; Persuasion;
Interactive Technologies; Serious Gaming | |||
| Designing Interactive Blimps as Puppets | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 204-209 | |
| Hideki Yoshimoto; Kazuhiro Jo; Koichi Hori | |||
| In this paper we propose four models of unmanned blimps: Robots, Pets,
Agents, and Puppets, according to whether they are autonomous or not and
whether they are shown to people or not. Robots and Pets are autonomous and
Agents and Puppets are not autonomous. Robots and Agents are shown to people
and Pets and Puppets are not shown to people. Based on these models, we
approach toward interactive blimps as puppets, which visualize performances
from people to people with real time effects and motions. We implemented
prototype applications where people could make performances through controls of
the blimp's light effects and flight motions with voice via mobile phones and a
physical controller. We organized observations of these prototypes at a
laboratory experiment and demo exhibitions. We also discuss our models based on
spectators' experience. Keywords: Blimp; Airship; Performance; Interaction; Art; Installation | |||
| Requirements for Supporting Individual Human Creativity in the Design Domain | | BIBA | Full-Text | 210-215 | |
| Uta Lösch; Julie Dugdale; Yves Demazeau | |||
| Creativity is an important activity in many professional and leisure domains. This article presents a first step towards a system which will provide a set of tools for enhancing the individual creative abilities of the user in a design task. We have identified aspects which are characterise individual creativity: motivation, domain knowledge, externalization, inspiration and analogies, and requirements handling. Based on these aspects we have defined requirements and suggest associated system functionalities. | |||
| Sonic Gestures Applied to a Percussive Dialogue in TanGram Using Wii Remotes | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 216-221 | |
| Carlos D. Perales; Cristina Portalés; Francisco Sanmartín | |||
| TanGram, is an original music score composed by Carlos D. Perales for
Percussion Quartet and Nintendo Wii Remotes used as a wireless interface for
Live Electronics. This paper examines how this composition explores exiting
research in interaction and communication between instruments and digital sound
processing discourse to produce a unique music mixed-media score, to explore
the sonic possibilities of a multi-timbrical instrument with the integration of
the visual gestures of an accessible device using processes of real-time
gestural mimesis. Keywords: Music; Electroacoustic; Live Electronics; Percussion | |||
| TNT: Touch 'n' Tangibles on LC-Displays | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 222-227 | |
| Ramon Hofer; Andreas Kunz | |||
| In this paper, we present TNT (Touch 'n' Tangibles) -- a new combination of
several existing hardware technologies, which are integrated into an
LC-display. TNT enables users to interact using finger touch and tangible user
interfaces at the same time on an active flat panel screen, while maintaining
precise identification of all interactive objects and fingers. TNT can
accurately distinguish between touch and Tangible User Interfaces input by
assigning different time slots to each interactive object using the same
sensing technology for both methods. TNT's tracking is not affected by objects
on the screen other than fingers and active Tangibles User Interfaces, which
makes it ideal for use in brainstorming applications. Keywords: HCI; Tracking; Sensor; Input Device; Multi Touch; TUI; Interaction | |||
| Entertainment Game to Support Interaction between Teachers and Students | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 228-233 | |
| Marcos Alexandre Rose Silva; Junia Coutinho Anacleto | |||
| A narrative game is described here which main goal is to support children's
free expression and socialization considering their cultural background. This
game can be used at school, in which students can develop a story together
under the teacher's supervision. The idea is to support teachers to create
characters and scenarios according to the students' cultural context, expressed
in their common sense knowledge, and consequently enabling them to get engaged
on developing the story collaboratively. Also, teacher has the common sense's
support to conduct the story according to the facts are being narrated, to
stimuli the students' communion. This cultural sensitive RPG-like environment
intends to promote a closer contact between teacher and students and among
students giving them a more contextualized computer tool to be stimulated to
freely express their thoughts, desires and to support them to cooperative work
with teachers what is desirable for their intellectual and cognitive
development. Keywords: Collaboration; Storyteller; Narrative Game; Context; Common Sense;
Education; Educational game | |||
| Multi-layer Based Authoring Tool for Digilog Book | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 234-239 | |
| Jonghee Park; Woontack Woo | |||
| In this paper, we propose multi-layer based authoring tool for Digilog Book.
The main feature is that a user can author some properties of printed contents
of a paper book. Those properties can be utilized for virtual contents
authoring. The proposed authoring tool provides an interface to allocate some
properties for printed contents. Those properties are utilized in manipulating
virtual contents. As a result, users can author a realistic Digilog Book. Keywords: augmented reality; authoring; layer; AR book; Digilog Book | |||
| Community Created Narrations as Mobile Entertainment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 240-245 | |
| Marjo Mäenpää; Riikka Kiljunen; Saija Mustaniemi | |||
| In this paper we describe short mobile video story tests that have been done
by using several authors/ users as story composers in the MoViE platform, which
enables users to share, communicate and compose short mobile video stories in a
networked community. The starting point of our study is the possibility to
create an entertaining, dramaturgically intensive and coherent story from
various short mobile videos composed by several authors, if there is some
structure or storyline that creates the narrative. The idea was to research how
separately filmed mobile videos from the same event or experience could form a
dramaturgically intensive story when they are loaded into a web based story
generator (MoViE). The test hypothesis was that a community -- whether virtual
or non virtual -- could create an entertaining experience through a video
montage. Keywords: mobile media; social media; mobile community; video; experimentation
narratology | |||
| Hardcore Classification: Identifying Play Styles in Social Games Using Network Analysis | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 246-251 | |
| Ben Kirman; Shaun Lawson | |||
| In the social network of a web-based online game, all players are not equal.
Through network analysis, we show that the community of players in a online
social game is an example of a scale free small world network and that the
growth of the player-base obeys a power law.
The community is centred around a minority group of "hardcore" players who define the social environment for the game, and without whom the social network would collapse. Methods are discussed for identifying this critically important subset of players automatically through analysing social behaviours within the game. Keywords: Social Networking; Online Games; Network Analysis; Hardcore Players; Game
Communities | |||
| Player Feedback Evaluation: Indicating Mass Public Potential for Pervasive Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 252-257 | |
| Ivo Flammer; Chen Yan; Wolf Ka; August Flammer; Jean-Paul Cheung; Romain Pellerin | |||
| Player feedback data was collected for the pervasive game "Meet Your
Heartbeat Twin", an event-type LBS (Location-Based Service) game including
affective computing through the player's live heartbeats. Correlation analysis
of the data demonstrates broad client profile for pervasive games, covering
age, gender and hobbies. The data also shows that Urban Games are clearly a
novel experience; they are not an extension neither from video games, nor from
mobile phone casual games. Surprisingly, the online sharing of the player's
very personal data, player's location and live heart rate was not perceived as
a critical issue at all. As expected, game control is crucial: to have fun,
players need some adaptation time for GPS orientation and this even for a very
low level complexity of mobile phone usage. Keywords: pervasive games; ubiquitous games; urban games | |||
| A Real-Time Video Illustration Using CUDA | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 258-263 | |
| JiHyung Lee; Yoon-Seok Choi; Bon-Ki Koo; Chi Jung Hwang | |||
| According to advancements in video technology, there are lots of needs for
various special effects of videos. The conventional image-transform effects
could be applied to video streams, but non-photorealistic rendering effects are
not easy to apply. For example, cartoon or illustration effects have expensive
costs in video transformation which makes it difficult to execute in real-time.
In this paper, we suggest a video transformation system with illustration
effects. It is designed to apply the illustration effects to the video stream
directly and is implemented to achieve real time performances using the GPU
hardware with NVIDIA's CUDA. Keywords: non-photorealistic rendering; video; illustration; real-time; CUDA | |||
| A Distributed Render Farm System for Animation Production | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 264-269 | |
| Jiali Yao; Zhigeng Pan; Hongxin Zhang | |||
| Render farm is widely used in movie industry to solve the long rendering
time problem. By parallel computing rendering jobs, render farm can speedup the
rendering process in a scalable way. In this paper, we present an efficient
design of render farm system name DRFarm in distributed environment. The most
important feature of the system is the capacity aware task scheduling strategy.
We first introduce the hierarchy tasks subdivision method which ensures
flexible merging and dividing tasks. By carefully grouping tasks and
dynamically assign them in different modes, the overall parallel rendering time
can be reduced by exploiting coherence comparing to conventional methods.
Furthermore, to adopt various rendering jobs from different locations, we
design a general rendering service interface with unified job definition. Keywords: parallel rendering; distributed rendering; render farm | |||
| Extending the Strada Framework to Design an AI for ORTS | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 270-275 | |
| Laurent Navarro; Vincent Corruble | |||
| Strategy games constitute a significant challenge for game AI, as they
involve a large number of states, agents and actions. This makes indeed the
decision and learning algorithms difficult to design and implement. Many
commercial strategy games use scripts in order to simulate intelligence,
combined with knowledge which is in principle not accessible to human players,
such as the position of the enemy base or the offensive power of its army.
Nevertheless, recent research on adaptive techniques has shown promising
results. The goal of this paper is to present the extension such a research
methodology, named Strada, so that it is made applicable to the real-time
strategy platform ORTS. The adaptations necessary to make Strada applicable to
ORTS are detailed and involve the use of dynamic tactical points and specific
training scenario for the learning AI. Two sets of experiments are conducted to
evaluate the performances of the new method. Keywords: Game AI; learning; real-time strategy games | |||
| Services in Game Worlds: A Semantic Approach to Improve Object Interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 276-281 | |
| Jassin Kessing; Tim Tutenel; Rafael Bidarra | |||
| To increase a player's immersion in the game world, its objects should
behave as one would reasonably expect. For this, it is now becoming
increasingly clear that what game objects really miss is richer semantics, not
eye-catching visuals. Current games' lack of semantics is mostly due to the
difficulty of game designers to realize such complex objects. This paper
proposes a solution to this problem in the form of services, characterizing
classes of game objects. An example of this is the service of a vending
machine, which exchanges a coin for a soda. A three-phased methodology is
presented to incrementally specify and add services to game objects. This
approach has been implemented and validated by means of a prototype system,
which enables a simple and intuitive definition of services in an integrated
environment. It is concluded that game objects aware of their services
facilitate more and better object interaction, therefore improving gameplay as
well. Keywords: game worlds; services; semantics; object interaction | |||
| Glasses-Free 3D Image Viewer by Handmade DIY Craft | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 282-283 | |
| Takashi Ohara; Kunio Sakamoto | |||
| We developed a glasses-free 3D stereoscopic display using an LCD display
panel, a view control film and a grating film for stereoscopic viewing. The
display screen is divided in half in order that left and right regions provide
the stereoscopic images for left and right eyes. Because both stereoscopic
images are not in the same position, it is difficult for the observer to view
the 3D image by the stereoviewing. The grating film can solve this problem
because it shifts both left and right images to the same position. Moreover the
view control film can give us glasses-free 3D viewing. As the result, the
observer can watch overlapped stereoscopic images for left and right eyes
without special glasses such as polarized glasses. Keywords: 3D imaging; polarized glasses; overlapping stereoscopic images; optical
grating film; 3D adapter; stereoscope | |||
| Monocular 3D Vision Using Real-Time Generated Scene with Depth of Field Effect | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 284-285 | |
| Takashi Hosomi; Kunio Sakamoto | |||
| The human vision system has visual functions for viewing 3D images with a
correct depth. These functions are called accommodation, vergence and binocular
stereopsis. Most 3D display system utilizes binocular stereopsis. The authors
have developed a monocular 3D vision system with accommodation mechanism, which
is useful function for perceiving depth. Keywords: monocular stereoscopic display; real-time stereogram; 3-D display | |||
| RFID Painting Demonstration | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 286-287 | |
| Olivier Haberman; Romain Pellerin; Eric Gressier-Soudan; Ugo Haberman | |||
| This demonstration challenges the conventional art experience. It brings
together the fields of art, science, and software integration. The goal was to
create a new kind of painting based on embedded technology, experimenting with
a new media: paintings augmented with RFIDs. The aim was to achieve interaction
between the artist's paintings and art gallery visitors. Keywords: RFID; interactivity; art; painting; mobile phone | |||
| Development and Evaluation of a Digital Vegetation Interaction Game for Children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 288-289 | |
| Akiko Deguchi; Shigenori Inagaki; Fusako Kusunoki; Etsuji Yamaguchi; Yoshiaki Takeda; Masanori Sugimoto | |||
| In this study, we develop a new digital sugoroku game that portray the
phenomenon of vegetation succession in a forest. The results of the
experimental evaluation showed that the game was effective in stimulating the
interest of the students who participated in the game. Keywords: Interaction game; Digital sugoroku; Environmental learning; Vegetation
succession | |||
| 4-Views Display System for Collaborative Tasks on Round Table | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 290-291 | |
| Mitsuru Okumura; Kunio Sakamoto | |||
| This paper describes 4-views display system that can be viewed from any
direction (i.e., the display has four viewing zones so as to perceive a screen
view of the display at all directions around a table). The authors have ever
researched information display systems involving 3D imaging. However, a
conventional monitor display is viewed from one direction, that is, the display
has narrow viewing angle and observers cannot view the screen from the opposite
side. Hence we developed a tabletop display system for collaborative tasks
cooperated by two users. This tabletop display can provide different images to
two users surrounding the system utilizing the image splitting technologies for
displaying a stereoscopic 3D image. The viewing zones of this display are
generated at both sides in front of observers' eyes. But screens on the monitor
cannot be viewed correctly by all users from any direction. Thus, conventional
display systems enable users not to do collaborative tasks on the round table.
To solve this problem, we developed new viewing systems. Keywords: all around viewing; group work; grating film; table-top display | |||
| Invisible Two-Dimensional Code Display for Additional Information | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 292-294 | |
| Tomofumi Yamanari; Kunio Sakamoto | |||
| The authors have researched a support system of the reminiscence and life
review activity. This support system consists of an interactive tabletop
display and interface system. Many interaction systems are proposed until now.
An invisible code is one of the useful technologies for a computer interaction.
The invisible codes provide us with an operating environment using a pen-like
device. However, this technology is applied to the only paper media. The
authors think we want to realize an interaction using the invisible code on an
electrical media. In this paper, we propose a method to display invisible codes
using LCD panels and to detect a polarized symbol image with a conventional CCD
camera. Keywords: 2D code; group work; polarized invisible code; polarized light control;
table-top display | |||
| MobiSpell: Educational Mobile Game Design and Development for Teaching Spelling to Young Children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 295-296 | |
| Menelaos Bakopoulos; Sofia Tsekeridou | |||
| A 3D educational mobile game is designed and implemented with the aim to
teach hard-to-spell words to young children exploiting their natural affinity
towards games entertainment in order to increase the likelihood of useful
knowledge acquisition while having fun. The educational game features a fighter
plane style environment in which spelling is accomplished by shooting down
letters. Incentives and motivation such as points and medals encourage learning
and motivate children to develop skills. The J2ME Mobile 3D Graphics library is
used with 3D models developed in 3DS MAX, and development taking place in
Netbeans. Keywords: educational game; mobile game; game design; game development | |||
| Live Demonstration of the Pervasive Game "GPS Joker" | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 297 | |
| Ivo Flammer; David Guyard | |||
| From the virtual to the real, everybody is looking for the Joker... your
mobile phone guides you through the city. Be the first one to win the Joker.
Enter the game and play your session here in Paris! Keywords: pervasive games; ubiquitous games; urban games | |||
| Rapid Interactive Installation Development Using Robust Computer Vision and Image-Based Rendering | | BIBA | Full-Text | 298-299 | |
| Denis Perevalov | |||
| The paper describes a technique which lets designers implement artistic
ideas rapidly into an autonomous interactive art system. The technique consists
of two parts: the fixed set of computer vision algorithms and image-based
rendering with branching animation sequences.
Despite some limitations, the technique provides easy implementation of the wide range of fascinating interactive scenes. | |||
| Reinforcement Learning for Blackjack | | BIBA | Full-Text | 300-301 | |
| Saqib A. Kakvi | |||
| This paper explores the development of an Artificial Intelligence system for an already existing framework of card games, called SKCards, and the experimental results obtained from this. The current Artificial intelligence in the SKCards Blackjack is highly flawed. Reinforcement Learning was chosen as the method to be employed. Reinforcement Learning attempts to teach a computer certain actions, given certain states, based on past experience and numerical rewards gained. The agent either assigns values to states, or actions in states. This will initially be developed for Blackjack, with possible extensions to other games. Blackjack is one of the simpler games and the only current game in the SKCards package which needs an Artificial Intelligence agent. All the other games are single player. To test the performance of the Reinforcement Learning agent, several experiments were devised and run. | |||
| "Plug: Secrets of the Museum": A Pervasive Game Taking Place in a Museum | | BIBA | Full-Text | 302-303 | |
| Michel Simatic; Isabelle Astic; Coline Aunis; Annie Gentes; Aude Guyot-Mbodji; Camille Jutant; Emmanuel Zaza | |||
| "Plug: Secrets of the Museum" (PSM) is a game played with NFC-enabled mobile phones inside a museum containing dedicated passive RFID tags. During a PSM session, 8 teams exchange virtual cards representing objects located in the museum. These exchanges are done either with RFID tags or with other teams. PSM game design results in an educational and entertaining game which is much more attractive than the plain old treasure hunt proposed by several museums. Thus PSM is a good companion to discover and even take up a museum. | |||
| In-Game Peer Performance Assessment Role That Fosters Metacognitive Agility and Reflection | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 304-306 | |
| Elaine M. Raybourn | |||
| In this paper we describe the development of a method and system for
training metacognitive agility (self-awareness and self-regulated learning) in
serious games applications. We introduce a unique design that features a novel
role for real-time, in-game peer performance assessment and feedback to
encourage user reflection and self-explanation. This approach has been
implemented in two serious games currently in use today whose focus is
intercultural competence and intercultural sensitivity education. Keywords: serious game; metacognitive agility; reflection; in-game performance
assessment; peer learning; intercultural competence; sensitivity | |||
| Edutainment Games for Mobile Multimedia Museum Guidance Systems: A Classification Approach | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 307-308 | |
| Areti Damala | |||
| This paper proposes a first sketch on the state of the art regarding
interactive edutainment games delivered through mobile multimedia museum
guidance systems used in the context of a cultural visit. The goal is to
identify current practices but also potential functional requirements, through
the introduction of a first set of classification criteria emerging from a
literature review of representative projects. The issue of related evaluation
practices is also discussed. Keywords: mobile learning; edutainment; mobile museum guides; games | |||
| Orpheus: Automatic Composition System Considering Prosody of Japanese Lyrics | | BIBA | Full-Text | 309-310 | |
| Satoru Fukayama; Kei Nakatsuma; Shinji Sako; Yuichiro Yonebayashi; Tae Hun Kim; Si Wei Qin; Takuho Nakano; Takuya Nishimoto; Shigeki Sagayama | |||
| We present an algorithm for song composition using prosody of Japanese lyrics. Since Japanese is a "pitch accent" language, listener's apprehension is strongly affected by the pitch motions of the speaker. For example, the meaning of Japanese word "ha-shi" changes with the pitch. It means "bridge" with an upward pitch motion, and "chopsticks" with the motion inversed. A melody attached to the lyrics cause an effect similar to the pitch accent. Therefore we can assume that pitches of Japanese lyrics give constraints on pitch motions of the melody. Furthermore, chord progression, rhythm and accompaniment give constraints on the transitions and occurrences of the melody notes. If a certain melody for the lyrics were obtained, the melody would satisfy these constraints. Conversely, we can compose a song by finding the melody which optimally meets the condition. | |||
| A Handy Laser Show System for Open Space Entertainment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 311-312 | |
| Toru Takahashi; Miki Namatame; Fusako Kusunoki; Isao Ono; Takao Terano | |||
| Big Fat Wand (BFW) is a handy laser show system, which includes a portable
laser show device newly developed and a laptop PC with easy-to-use authoring
toolkits. This paper describes basic principles and architecture of BFW, then
demonstrates how BFW is used in an open space environment. Keywords: Laser Show Device; Entertainment in an Open Space; Interactive Sessions | |||
| Sketch-It-Up! Demo | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 313-314 | |
| Bulut Karakaya; Camilo Garcia; Daniel Rodriguez; Manoj Nityanandam; Nadia Labeikovsky; Theyab Al Tamimi | |||
| Every creative project needs to have an ideation process. A good ideation
process relies on a simple yet effective way of putting ideas on the table and
sorting through them, also discarding them easily if necessary. However, for
this ideation to be successful it has to be a process in which cheap and simple
ways of exploring ideas are used along with tools that are readily accessible
to everyone in the field to use. Keywords: Ideation; Risk free innovation | |||
| Automatic Chat Generation of Emotional Entertainment Characters Using News Information | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 315-318 | |
| Jun'ichi Hoshino; Tetsuya Saito; Kenichi Hirota | |||
| Currently interactive entertainment characters have their conversation
topics prepared beforehand by the creator. In this paper, we propose the
automatic chat generation engine for emotional entertainment characters using
real-time news information. The character emotionally reacts to the news
contents based on their interest and feelings so that the users can have
intimate feeling. The character also incrementally learns user's interest from
their response. Keywords: chat generation; RSS; emotional character; user learning | |||
| Incremental Learning Algorithm for Online Action Game System | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 319-322 | |
| Junichi Hoshino; Hiroshi Mori | |||
| One of the limitations of computer opponents in action games is that the
character AI is constructed in advance, and players may become bored quickly.
We have built an online action game system in which a non-player character
(NPC) can incrementally learn sequences of action and combinations. NPCs can
adopt different fighting strategies for fighting with different players. Keywords: action game; imitation learning; non-player character | |||
| Task-Based Second Language Learning Game System | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 323-324 | |
| Jun'ichi Hoshino; Tetsuya Saito; Shiratori Kazuto | |||
| In traditional English learning as a second language, learners rarely have
the opportunity to practice oral communication, so the acquisition of oral
proficiency is a slow process. In this paper, we propose a task-based second
language learning game system. The task-based learning method enables learners
to obtain communicative skills through the practice of particular "missions"
using voice and gesture communications with life-size 3D game character. Keywords: Task-based language training; Conversational game character; Locomotion
control; Negotiation of meaning | |||
| Designing a Game Controller for Novice HALO3 Players | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 325-326 | |
| Matthijs Kwak; Ben Salem | |||
| This paper describes the process of designing and developing an intuitive
controller that helps lower the threshold for novice gamers to play Halo 3. To
help novices to master the controller, most controls have been replaced with
rich and meaningful interaction. To help novices understand the game, extra
feedback channels have been added to reinforce information given onscreen so
critical information is not missed. Keywords: Game Controller; HALO3; XBOX 360; Product Design | |||
| AZ66: How Can We Play with Emotions? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 327-328 | |
| Stéphan Froment; Mélanie Ginibre; Stéphanie Mader; Antoine Sarafian; Aymeric Schwartz; Delphine Soriano; Alexandre Topol; Jérôme Dupire | |||
| Since the early 90's, affective computing researches have mainly been
focused on emotions recognition and less on original entertainment contents
that could be proposed. We present a prototype resulting from the association
of a physiological sensing device with an original game. Keywords: video game; affective interaction; physiological sensors | |||
| WHO AM I? : A Art Ludic Installation in Virtual Reality | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 329-330 | |
| Sophie Daste; Karleen Groupierre | |||
| This paper presents the Art Ludic Installation in Virtual Reality, named
"WHO AM I?". Keywords: Art; Ludic; Installation; Virtual; Augmented; Reality | |||
| Affective Interaction: Challenges at the Ubiquitous Computing Times | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 331-332 | |
| Stephane Gros; Jérôme Dupire; Stéphane Natkin | |||
| Due to the diversity of studies towards detection of affective state of a
user, it is hard to distinguish amongst them toward specific needs. Our
approach consists in realizing a comparative study taking in account
specificities such as mobility to be able to choose the best settings for a
specific set of constraints. These issues will be applied in the context of the
PLUG project which aims at creating an ubiquitous affective game that will take
place in a museum. Keywords: Affective computing; biofeedback; physiology; emotion | |||
| You Are Here | | BIBA | Full-Text | 333 | |
| Luc Courchesne | |||
| The continuing expansion of the visible domain, increasingly including and giving force (and reality) to the creations of our imagination and to formerly inaccessible places and dimensions of our unfolding universe, has produced a radical shift of the shared concepts of time and space. Suddenly, the statement « you are here » has a very different meaning. Thanks to the proliferation and increased mastery of interactive, immersive and socially engaging media, we have passed beyond the simple curiosity for technologies to find ourselves, as MacLuhan professed, dressed and immersed in them. Immersed indeed we are, collectively engaged in a « reality jam » with the physical, the artificial, the augmented, and the virtual. In the process, we have turned from spectators to users, visitors and now inhabitants of our own crafts. Questions such as « Who am I? », » Who are you? », » Where are we? », » How are we supposed to behave? », are now being asked with new relevance and urgency. Survival skills such as conversation, posture, attitude, or simply what to wear, are being reformulated on the fly by the natives and immigrants of this new territory that does not always perfectly accommodates the biological features we inherited from evolution. | |||
| Game Experience May Vary: Understanding Play | | BIBA | Full-Text | 334 | |
| Gonzalo Frasca | |||
| Why do we call it game research and not play research? For the last decade of videogame studies, most of the attention has been paid to games as formal entities. At first, games seem easier to understand: they generally have clear rules and goals. They would be perfect machineries with formal mechanics if it was not for one factor: humans and their stubborn love for misbehaving. This talk provides an ontological approach to play and games and will analyze the relationship between the two concepts by taking into account the player's mindset. If this sounds too theoretical and abstract, there's no need to worry. It holds the key to better understanding the differences between casual and hardcore games. | |||
| The New Pact: How Online Worlds Forge a New Form of Alliance between Players and Designers | | BIBA | Full-Text | 335 | |
| Nicolas Gaume | |||
| Today's Pop Culture is tomorrow's classic. Entertainment is often able to reflect a society's questions and anxieties of the day. We will discuss how and why today's Digital Generation has replaced their grandparents' heroes and their parents' anti-heroes by their very own avatars. How and why the empathy with heroes that has traditionally been utilized by movies has been gradually overtaken by the personalized and immersive experience of games as lived through the eyes of an avatar? How multiplayer activities are now establishing new social paradigms where these avatars help us all deal with the natural schizophrenia of everyday life by allowing us to explore our possible selves. The Social Networks boom has demonstrated our appetite for connections with others; and games our appetite for second lives, our desire to involve ourselves and master complex worlds. Perhaps, tomorrow new public Agoras will be created from a new generation of Virtual Worlds built using the grammar that video games have forged over the last 40 years... | |||
| The International Game Developer Association (IGDA) Education Special Interest Group (EdSIG) | | BIBA | Full-Text | 336 | |
| Susan Gold | |||
| Developed in 2006 the IGDA EdSIG mission is to create community resources that will strengthen the academic membership of the IGDA while enhancing the education of future and current game developers. Since the inception of the SIG there have been two major projects: 1) 2008 IGDA Curriculum Framework which has become the standard for game education; 2) The Global Game Jam™ where experimentation, innovation and creativity are the main components of it's success. The Global Game Jam™ creates collaborations and partnerships globally to promote game studies. | |||
| Story of a Video Game Workshop: "Ico", an Interactive Fairy Tale for Children Less Interaction | | BIBA | Full-Text | 337 | |
| Michael Stora | |||
| The Since several years, I use the video game as a therapeutic object. This new mediation seems pertinent for children that we qualified "limit". Those children are more in the game in the gambling sense, than in the Winnicot's play. The video game is relevant in a clinic sense for two reasons essential. The first reason is that mediation is in picture and children and adolescents have an intimate attachment to these who have the power to do emerge affects and words that in generally are repressed. The second reason is this meeting between narcissism pathology and the use of video game as a place of virtue's passage in act. The acting becomes symbolic and the conflict showed by the narration of the video game is in a dynamic point between drive and narcissism. | |||
| Japan's Arcade Games and Their Technology | | BIBA | Full-Text | 338 | |
| Yukiharu Sambe | |||
| The Japanese computer entertainment market is $20 billion in size. Of that, the arcade market makes up the biggest share of revenue ($6 billion), with the home market and mobile phone market following at $3.5 billion and $2 billion, respectively. Abroad, however, home console gaming dominates and revenues from arcades make up only a small portion of the total market. In this session, I will introduce the arcade machines and supporting technology, discuss reasons for the enduring widespread popularity of arcade gaming in Japan, and explore potential directions for the future of arcade technology. | |||