Roderick McCall

TimeWarp: interactive time travel with a mobile mixed reality game

Mobile location-aware applications have become quite popular across a range of new areas such as pervasive games and mobile edutainment applications. However it is only recently, that approaches have been presented which combine gaming and education with mobile Augmented Reality systems. However they typically lack a close crossmedia integration of the surroundings, and often annotate or extend the environment rather than modifying and altering it. In this paper we present a mobile outdoor mixed reality game for exploring the history of a city in the spatial and the temporal dimension. We introduce the design and concept of the game and present a universal mechanism to define and setup multi-modal user interfaces for the game challenges. Finally we discuss the results of the user tests.

Lightweight palm and finger tracking for real-time 3D gesture control

We present a novel technique implementing barehanded interaction with virtual 3D content by employing a time-of-flight camera. The system improves on existing 3D multi-touch systems by working regardless of lighting conditions and supplying a working volume large enough for multiple users. Previous systems were limited either by environmental requirements, working volume, or computational resources necessary for realtime operation. By employing a time-of-flight camera, the system is capable of reliably recognizing gestures at the finger level in real-time at more than 50 fps with commodity computer hardware using our newly developed precision hand and finger-tracking algorithm. Building on this algorithm, the system performs gesture recognition with simple constraint modeling over statistical aggregations of the hand appearances in a working volume of more than 8 cubic meters. Two iterations of user tests were performed on a prototype system, demonstrating the feasibility and usability of the approach as well as providing first insights regarding the acceptance of true barehanded touch-based 3D interaction.

Using presence to evaluate an augmented reality location aware game

Location-aware augmented reality games provide players with a rich and potentially unlimited range of interaction possibilities. In this paper, a study is described which uses a number of measurement techniques including questionnaires, direct observation, semi-structured interviews and video analysis to measure player’s sense of presence. The paper points to the importance of the availability of actions within augmented reality games and how this shapes their sense of presence. The findings indicate that such an approach to measuring presence can provide valuable information on the structure of augmented reality location-aware games.

The place probe: exploring a sense of place in real and virtual environments

This paper describes the design, application, and refinement of a qualitative tool designed to study sense of place. The Place Probe incorporates a range of stimuli and techniques aimed at articulating a persons sense of place. It has been developed, used, and undergone three revisions. The paper describes the background to the choice of measures that were included in the Place Probe and describes its application in both a physical place and a virtual representation of that place. This enables a comparison of the experiences. An analysis of the results reveals a similarity of reported experience, however the extremes experienced in the physical place were less pronounced in the virtual representation. The Place Probe has been refined in light of the results of the empirical work and now incorporates both qualitative and quantitative data on the experience of place.

Subjective and behavioral presence measurement and interactivity in the collaborative augmented reality game TimeWarp

Presence is usually assessed via a variety of subjective and objective measures. However, constraints often result in subjective measurements using questionnaires as a key method of data collection. In this paper we present a study of 44 participants of a collaborative augmented reality game known as TimeWarp which used both subjective and objective behavioral measures. Behavior as coded from video recordings of one scene of the game and self-reports about feelings of presence were compared. Our findings indicate that pointing behavior and verbal responses to the virtual content are correlated negatively to sense of presence. We further investigated the influence of subjectively perceived interactivity on perceived presence. We found that the interaction possibilities perceived by the participants predicted their experience of social presence with the virtual characters in the game. Furthermore, playing together with another person did not result in decreased social presence of the virtual characters. Implications for presence research are discussed.

The final TimeWarp: using form and content to support player experience and presence when designing location-aware mobile augmented reality games

Designing Augmented Reality location aware games requires an understanding of how form and content issues impact on presence. A study of 60 players was conducted using questionnaires, video analysis and interviews. The results indicate that content including: moral dilemmas, strong narratives, using real locations effectively and applying simple physical behavior within virtual characters to improve embodiment have a positive impact on player experience. The results are presented in the form of guidelines.

Gaming concepts and incentives to change driver behaviour

In this paper we present a novel concept that deals specifically with changing driver behaviour in order to reduce traffic congestion. The project I-GEAR (incentives and gaming environments for automobile routing) aims to understand the motivations that drivers have while undertaking the daily commute and then to provide them with a range of incentives to change their behaviour. A key focus within the project is on ways in which the problem could potentially be solved without recourse to an expensive infrastructure project. Our solution to this problem was to move the problem of traffic management onto everyday mobile devices. In the following paper we outline the background to the problem, concepts relating to pervasive gaming, existing explorations of incentives and gaming approaches as well as our basic concept and project methodology.

Experiencing Autonomous Vehicles: Crossing the Boundaries between a Drive and a Ride

Autonomous vehicles have gained attention recently since research organizations and companies have presented (semi-) autonomous vehicles driving in public traffic. This workshop covers the crossover between driving/riding in (semi-) autonomous vehicles and user experience (UX) research. The focus lies in an in-depth discussion on challenges and potentials for UX in autonomous vehicles. We will explore various areas such as, user experience factors, interaction design issues, entertainment potentials, social driving, and methodological issues. Additionally, we envision building a bridge between the automotive community and the human-robot-interaction community, since we believe autonomous vehicles can be regarded as a very specific kind of a robot. The overall aim of the workshop is to discuss the future landscape for research within and across each of these areas.

Towards A Taxonomy of Autonomous Vehicle Handover Situations

This paper proposes a taxonomy of autonomous vehicle handover situations with a particular emphasis on situational awareness. It focuses on a number of research challenges such as: legal responsibility, the situational awareness level of the driver and the vehicle, the knowledge the vehicle must have of the drivers driving skills as well as the in-vehicle context. The taxonomy acts as a starting point for researchers and practitioners to frame the discussion on this complex problem.

What's around the corner?: enhancing driver awareness in autonomous vehicles via in-vehicle spatial auditory displays

There is currently a distinct lack of design consideration associated with autonomous vehicles and their impact on human factors. Research has yet to consider fully the impact felt by the driver when he/she is no longer in control of the vehicle [12]. We propose that spatialised auditory feedback could be used to enhance driver awareness to the intended actions of autonomous vehicles. We hypothesise that this feedback will provide drivers with an enhanced sense of control. This paper presents a driving simulator study where 5 separate auditory feedback methods are compared during both autonomous and manual driving scenarios. We found that our spatialised auditory presentation method alerted drivers to the intended actions of autonomous vehicles much more than all other methods and they felt significantly more in control during scenarios containing sound vs. no sound. Finally, that overall workload in autonomous vehicle scenarios was lower compared to manual vehicle scenarios.