Johanna Höysniemi

Using peer tutoring in evaluating the usability of a physically interactive computer game with children

Abstract This paper presents a novel approach to usability evaluation with children called peer tutoring. Peer tutoring means that children teach other children to use the software that is evaluated. The basic philosophy behind this is to view software as a part of childs play, so that the teaching process is analogous to explaining the rules of a game such as hide and seek. If the software is easy to teach and learn, it is more likely that the amount of users increases in a social setting such as a school. The peer tutoring approach provides information about teachability and learnability of software and it also promotes communication in the test situation, compared to a test person communicating with an adult instructor. The approach has been applied to the development of a perceptually interactive user interface in QuiQuis Giant Bounce, a physically and vocally interactive computer game for 4–9 year old children. The results and experiences of using peer tutoring are promising and it has proved to be effective in detecting usability flaws and in improving the design of the game.

Martial arts in artificial reality

This paper presents Kick Ass Kung-Fu, a martial arts game installation where the player fights virtual enemies with kicks and punches as well as acrobatic moves such as cartwheels. Using real-time image processing and computer vision, the video image of the user is embedded inside 3D graphics. Compared to previous work, our system uses a profile view and two displays, which allows an improved view of many martial arts techniques. We also explore exaggerated motion and dynamic slow-motion effects to transform the aesthetic of kung-fu movies into an interactive, embodied experience. The system is described and analyzed based on results from testing the game in a theater, in a television show, and in a user study with 46 martial arts practitioners.

Wizard of Oz prototyping of computer vision based action games for children

This paper describes the use of the Wizard of Oz (WOz) method in the design of computer vision based action games controlled with body movements. A WOz study was carried out with 34 children of ages 7 to 9 in order to find out the most intuitive movements for game controls and to evaluate the relationship between avatar and player actions. Our study extends the previous Wizard of Oz studies by showing that WOz prototyping of perceptive action games is feasible despite the delay caused by the wizard. The results also show that distinctive movement categories and gesture patterns can be found by observing the children playing games controlled by a human wizard. The approach minimizes the need for fully functional prototypes in the early stages of the design and provides video material for testing and developing computer vision algorithms, as well as guidelines for animating the game character.

Children's intuitive gestures in vision-based action games

Novel computer vision-based game technologies aim to give players more immersive and physically challenging gaming experiences.

Child computer interaction: advances in methodological research: Introduction to the special issue of cognition technology and work

In recent years, there has been an increasing trend for children to use information and communication technology in its various forms. Children now grow up immersed in technology to a level that keeps surprising earlier generations, but which, to them, is simply an inherent element of their habitat. Although this immersion is partly dependent on wealth and circumstance, it is certainly the case that in most developed countries children are frequently users and owners of Personal Computers, video game consoles, personal music technologies and mobile phones. This increase in usage of interactive technology by children has not gone unnoticed. More than ever before, technology manufacturers and service providers are turning their attention to children as a growing market segment. Even more important, societies are becoming concerned to ensure that appropriate products and services, namely those that can support development and enhance well-being, are being made available for children. Whatever motivates the design of interactive technology for children, it is clear that there is an urgent and present need for methodological knowledge about the design of these products and an understanding of the ways in which interaction takes place between the child and the technology. Designing technology for humans has been studied for many years. Initially concentrating on ergonomics of use, before becoming more concerned with general human factors, this field has now matured to the point where there are defined research areas that have clear identities. Human computer interaction (HCI) is that area that focuses on the interaction between man and machine. HCI has been growing in importance over the last 25 or more years, and, as a discipline, has matured and settled. For HCI practitioners and academics there are published curricula, dedicated high-impact journals, specialised undergraduate and postgraduate University courses, and vibrant associations of professionals in the field (e.g., Usability Professionals Association, British HCI group, ACM SIGCHI). Child computer interaction (CCI) is the sub-field of HCI that studies how children use interactive products. In contrast with HCI, CCI is still finding its way. Relating to sociology, education and educational technology, connected to art and design, and with links to storytelling and literature, as well as psychology and computing this new field borrows methods of inquiry from many different disciplines. This disparity in methods of enquiry makes it difficult for researchers to gain an overview of research, to compare across studies and to gain a clear view of cumulative progress in the field. It is difficult to identify an exact moment when CCI became a specialised field as it was a gradual maturity of the area that spawned its creation. In the early days, pioneering work by Papert and Resnick at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) laid the foundations for work that was carried forward by a few interested individuals around the globe. Several key individuals including P. Markopoulos (&) Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands e-mail: p.markopoulos@tue.nl

A computer vision and hearing based user interface for a computer game for children

This paper describes the design of a perceptual user interface for controlling a flying cartoon-animated dragon in QuiQuis Giant Bounce, a physically and vocally interactive computer game for 4 to 9 years old children. The dragon mimics the users movements and breathes fire when the user shouts. The game works on a PC computer equipped with practically any low-cost microphone and webcam. It is targeted for uncontrolled real-life environments such as homes and schools.

Animaatiokone: an installation for creating clay animation

This paper describes Animaatiokone, an installation for experimenting and learning about stop-motion animation. Located in a movie theater, it allows people to create clay animation while waiting for a movie. Collaboration between users is supported, for example, by sharing of clay actors. The installations user interface allows even beginners to create and edit animation with help of automatic onion-skinning and simple controls developed through iterative testing and prototyping. In test use, the installation has been popular and hundreds of animations have been created and made available via the installations homepage http://www.animaatiokone.net

Children and Interactive Technology

This chapter presents an overview of the different technologies used by children, discusses interactivity, and considers several of the primary issues that relate to how children use technology. Interactivity is a term that is used in several different contexts. In the context of human communication, two individuals are said to be interacting if they are communicating (orally or otherwise) with enough connectivity that each individuals changes in behavior can be observed by the other. Products or artifacts mediate another form of interaction. Sometimes referred to as human-to-artifact interaction, man–machine interaction, or human–computer interaction (HCI), this form of interaction relies on the ability of the “nonhuman” actor to demonstrate behavior that is interactive. Interactive technology for children can be characterized in many ways: their level of interactivity, their portability, their location, or their connectivity. A good way to categorize childrens interactive products is by their purpose.

Planning the Evaluation Study

This chapter provides the preliminary steps for planning the evaluation study and the stage at which the study is crystallized and captured. It introduces terminology and concepts that will be useful when contemplating and discussing evaluation studies. It presents different approaches for, and purposes of, evaluations and outlines the different criteria that might be used to formulate evaluation goals. Further, it discusses how different approaches might be served by different evaluation methods and analysis procedures and demonstrates how any evaluation study represents a trade-off between control and the realism that a test setup can achieve. There are several purposes for the evaluation. The first step is deciding what the evaluation study is trying to achieve. Different purposes may require different approaches to evaluation, different data to be collected, and different analysis procedures. The evaluation purposes have several distinctions: diagnostic evaluations, formative and summative evaluations, and exploratory, measurement, and experimental studies.

What Is a Child

This chapter provides an overview of child development theories and highlights the diverse nature of children, their lack of homogeneity, and their widely differing talents and motivations. It provides a sense of children and childhood and also outlines some basic child psychology. As a population children change over time in similar ways: They grow bigger, get stronger, and learn more. However, across a similar population, individual children can also have many differences. Child development is the study of these differences and similarities. An understanding of child development is necessary for individuals who want to carry out evaluation studies with and for children. This understanding will help prevent errors in judgment, minimize poor design of evaluation studies, and provide more believable results. The chapter also discusses the stages of child development that include physical development, socioemotional development, and cognitive development. These developments are intended to explain the differences and similarities between children that change with age.