Orchestrating a mixed reality game 'on the ground

CHI '05 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '05, 2005

Personalization and social awareness, important aspects in the definition of a place, are traditionally overlooked in the design of technology for museums. We describe Imprints, a system to enhance the role of visitor participation beyond information receiver to active creator of sense of place. Overall response to the Imprints system is explored through interviews and log analysis of use. Despite some usability issues, response to the system was positive, and it was appropriated for both personalization and awareness of others. The results suggest an opportunity to introduce technology that plays with the dynamic between private expression and public presence in the traditional environment of the art museum.

Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI 09, 2009

We review the current status of ethnography in systems design. We focus particularly on new approaches to and understandings of ethnography that have emerged as the computer has moved out of the workplace. These seek to implement a different order of ethnographic study to that which has largely been employed in design to date. In doing so they reconfigure the relationship ethnography has to systems design, replacing detailed empirical studies of situated action with studies that provide cultural interpretations of action and critiques of the design process itself. We hold these new approaches to and understandings of ethnography in design up to scrutiny, with the purpose of enabling designers to appreciate the differences between new and existing approaches to ethnography in systems design and the practical implications this might have for design.

Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play - CHI PLAY '15, 2015

In this paper we describe the role of docents in a mixed reality game at a historic site called Operation:Citadel. The docents act as intermediaries between the system and the participants, providing interpretation and understanding of the game and managing interaction. This permits the integration of sophisticated interactions and rich narrative while maintaining the walk-up-and-use, casual nature of the exhibit. We describe the implementation and design, and examine the effect that docents had on enjoyment of and frustration with the game. Our results indicate that docents can serve an important role in augmenting participant experience. We identify and describe a set of roles unique to docents of Mixed Reality experiences.

Multimedia Tools and Applications

Realistic 3D virtual environments, such as existing city models, have the potential to be used in pervasive games as a passageway between physical and virtual. Smooth attention displacement and transitions between these two realities are largely unexplored in the context of pervasive gameplay. We conducted two field trials using a pervasive live action role playing game to study the effect moving between the virtual and the physical has on co-presence and memorability. Although differences in co-presence during gameplay were small, they highlight the subtleties in the social structuring of pervasive gameplay. Spatial similarity between the physical and virtual environments made the 3D virtual environments more memorable. We identify two important issues to consider in embedding virtual environments into pervasive games: structuring of social interactions and the spatial realism of the VEs.

Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2016

The infusion of mobile and collaborative technologies into our everyday lives enables new forms of pervasive games and play. We use the term pervasive play as shorthand for technology-mediated, playful experiences that are tethered to our everyday lives through the physical and virtual spaces we inhabit. This includes a variety of game and play genres ranging from alternate reality games to urban games to mixed reality performance and playful uses of public displays. The goals of the workshop are to (a) strengthen and broaden the community of pervasive play researchers and practitioners, (b) explore design frameworks for creating novel pervasive play experiences, and (c) identify key research questions, methods, and challenges for future research in this area.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2012

In this paper, we draw on serious mixed reality games as an approach to explore and design for coordination in disaster response scenarios. We introduce AtomicOrchid, a real-time location-based game to explore coordination and agile teaming under temporal and spatial constraints according to our approach. We outline the research plan to study the various interactional arrangements in which human responders can be supported by agents in disaster response scenarios in the future.

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 2016

The advent of affordable and powerful mobile technology has allowed for explorations in mixed reality that merges virtual and physical space. However, the social and entertainment value and efficacy of mixed reality platforms for adult powered chair users has not been widely explored. In this article, we introduce the Mobility Games project, which aims to produce a series of inclusive entertainment technologies and services for people who use powered chairs. We describe our first offering: an accessible, social mixed reality game for co-located mobile play in everyday spaces. Findings from two exploratory field studies and a post hoc observer survey show that adult powered chair users found the game to be entertaining and used a variety of path strategies as they learned to play the game. An initial set of theoretically and empirically informed guidelines for making mobile mixed reality games accessible to adult powered chair users with diverse abilities is proposed.