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2017 | Book

Designing Collaborative Games for Children Education on Sustainable Development Read chapter Read first chapter

Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment

8th International Conference, INTETAIN 2016, Utrecht, The Netherlands, June 28–30, 2016, Revised Selected Papers

Editors: Ronald Poppe, John-Jules Meyer, Remco Veltkamp, Mehdi Dastani

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intelligent technologies for Interactive Entertainment, INTETAIN 2016, held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in June 2016.
The 19 full papers, 5 short and 6 workshop papers were selected from 49 submissions and present novel interactive techniques and their application in entertainment, education, culture and art. The papers are grouped in six thematic sessions: serious games, novel applications and tools, exertion games, persuasion and motivation, interaction technologies and game studies.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter

Serious Games

Frontmatter
Designing Collaborative Games for Children Education on Sustainable Development
Abstract
Recent research in the digital learning game area strives for defining a solid grounding methodology, capable of driving the game design process towards the maximization of the intended educational results. In this work, we investigate the mix of tangible interaction, immersive environments, collaborative multiplay and validated theoretical background in the design of WaterOn!, an educational game focused on teaching water cycle contents for children. The paper presents the design decisions taken in light of the adopted methodologies, and discusses some open questions related to the use of these tools.
Alysson Diniz Dos Santos, Francesco Strada, Andrea Martina, Andrea Bottino
Towards Serious Gaming for Communication Training - A Pilot Study with Police Academy Students
Abstract
Serious games are increasingly being used for training of communicative skills. The main idea is to create a virtual environment in which a trainee can interact with graphically embodied virtual characters. By designing scenarios in such way that the character’s behaviour provides direct feedback on the correctness of the trainee’s choices, an interactive learning experience is created. This paper explores the potential of this approach in the domain of law enforcement. A prototype has been developed of a serious game that enables police academy students to train their communicative skills. A pilot study with 41 students has been conducted. The results show that this is a promising instrument for education in this domain, but also point out several suggestions for improvement.
Tibor Bosse, Charlotte Gerritsen
A Serious Game for Learning Social Networking Literacy by Flaming Experiences
Abstract
In this study, we developed a serious game in which fifth and sixth grade elementary school students who have yet to use Twitter experience flaming in a fictitious setting, with the goal of teaching information literacy and online manners. In our system, elementary school children were able to see their Twitter timeline alongside concurrent real-world conditions. This virtual experience gave them an understanding of Twitter without actually using the service, as well as the opportunity to actively learn what types of posts lead to flaming and to cultivate crisis management skills. Upon evaluation of fifth and sixth grade test subjects, it was found that our system is an effective for information literacy and online manners learning.
Kaoru Sumi, Kodai Kasai
Game@School. Teaching Through Gaming and Mobile-Based Tutoring Systems
Abstract
In this work, we describe an approach and a conceptual architecture of a supporting teaching tool that takes into account two main objectives in new teaching trends: Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and Intelligent Pedagogical Agents (IPAs). We additionally present an Android application that uses the IPA as a standalone application as an initial step towards the realization of such an architecture.
Annalisa Terracina, Massimo Mecella, Riccardo Berta, Francesco Fabiani, Dario Litardi

Interaction Technologies

Frontmatter
Exploring User-Defined Gestures and Voice Commands to Control an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Abstract
In this paper we follow a participatory design approach to explore what novice users find to be intuitive ways to control an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). We gather users’ suggestions for suitable voice and gesture commands through an online survey and a video interview and we also record the voice commands and gestures used by participants’ in a Wizard of Oz experiment where participants thought they were manoeuvring a UAV. We identify commonalities in the data collected from the three elicitation methods and assemble a collection of voice and gesture command sets for navigating a UAV. Furthermore, to obtain a deeper understanding of why our participants chose the gestures and voice commands they did, we analyse and discuss the collected data in terms of mental models and identify three prevailing classes of mental models that likely guided many of our participants in their choice of voice and gesture commands.
Ekaterina Peshkova, Martin Hitz, David Ahlström
Monitoring Interactions
Abstract
This work proposes a human interaction recognition based approach to video indexing that represents a video by showing when and with whom was interacted throughout the video. In order to visualize the length of an interaction, it is required to recognize individuals that have been detected in earlier parts of the video. To solve this problem, an approach to photo-clustering is extended to video material by tracking detected faces and using the information from tracking to improve the recognition of human beings. The results of the tracking based approach show a considerable decrease of false cluster assignments compared to the original method. Further, it is demonstrated that the proposed method is able to correctly recognize the appearance of five out of the six individuals correctly.
Felix Meißner, Remco C. Veltkamp
Hold Me Tight: A Tangible Interface for Mediating Closeness to Overcome Physical Separation
Abstract
This paper presents a sense appealing tangible user interface as an innovative technological solution to increase a feeling of closeness for two physically separated persons: an interactive pillow pair allowing intimate voice message exchange over a distance. The pillow shape incorporates the comfortable characteristics of the intimate going-to-bed ritual and is meant to provoke a relaxed and reflective ambience in which dedication for one another can be revealed. A working proof of concept prototype is evaluated in a qualitative study based on a combination of cultural probes and interviews to investigate its applicability for couples living in long-distance relationships. Initial findings indicate that the pillow concept is successful in the matter of providing an appealing solution to make lovers feel closer over a geographical distance. Users slow down, feel warm and safe and compose messages meant to express support, consolation, love and appreciation.
Carina Gansohr, Katharina Emmerich, Maic Masuch
Analyzing Fear Using a Single-Sensor EEG Device
Abstract
Single-sensor EEG hardware provides possibilities for researchers to measure fear in human beings. Previous research show that consumer-grade EEG devices can be used to measure different states of mind. However, as is often the case with similar research, post-hoc questionnaires are used to measure the emotional state. This paper will focus on the physiological and psychological state of an individual in fear, comparing continuous subjective feedback with EEG measurements. Data has been collected using a Myndplay Brainband and a rotary meter, while 30 subjects viewed soothing and scary films. The rotary meter proved useful for obtaining continuous feedback and, although more research is needed, differences in brainwaves for fearful and calm states are found for multiple frequency bands.
Jeroen de Man, Nicolette Stassen

Persuasion and Motivation

Frontmatter
Design of an Adaptive Persuasive Mobile Application for Stimulating the Medication Adherence
Abstract
There is a variety of persuasive applications that have been proposed in different application domains like well-being, health-care and e-commerce. However many have been designed largely for a general audience. Designers of these technologies may achieve more success if applications consider contextual information of the user for making them more adaptable. This paper is an proposal for improving medication adherence by sending personalized persuasive message and reinforcing feedback. To do this, we propose an adaptive services oriented architecture, and a persuasion strategy defined for selecting the appropriate persuasiveness level according to contextual information such as time and stress. Stress measure is derived from physiological data (e.g. Electro Dermal Activity, heart rate, temperature), which is collected through a wearable wireless multi-sensor device.
Franci Suni Lopez, Nelly Condori-Fernandez
Interactive Advertisements in an IoT Era
Abstract
The Internet has profoundly changed the nature of ads by making them interactive. We are currently observing an evolution to the Internet of Things (IoT) and it is inevitable that interaction designers will utilize IoT for creating a new ilk of interactive ads. In this paper, we present evidence that the attitude towards a TV ad interacting with a robot is positive when compared to the absence of interaction. Furthermore, we sketch the interaction space of TV ads and generally TV content with smart objects.
Vassilis Javed Khan, Dion Bonné, Suleman Shahid

Exertion Games

Frontmatter
Cooperative Tetris: The Influence of Social Exertion Gaming on Game Experience and Social Presence
Abstract
This paper presents the primary results of a study that examined the difference between exertion vs. non-exertion in game experience and social presence. This study aims to gain more insight in the influence of body movement in a cooperative game on social presence and game experience, to be better able to design interactive technology that helps people to adopt a healthy lifestyle and to connect people socially. The study was performed among 336 adults (age range: 16–64 years) who played a two-player exertion (n = 167) or a non-exertion (n = 169) version of cooperative Tetris. Analysis of an extended version of the Gaming Experience Questionnaire showed that although participants who played the exertion version of the game found themselves less competent, there was no significant difference between the two groups (exertion players and non-exertion players) in game experience or social presence.
Danića Mast, Sanne de Vries
Distributed Embodied Team Play, a Distributed Interactive Pong Playground
Abstract
This paper presents work in the field of distributed exertion games, which are controlled by moving the body. People play these games together while being located at different places in the world. The novel contribution of this paper is the introduction of distributed team play in which both collocated and distributed players participate. In our Distributed Interactive Pong Playground (DIPP) players bounce a ball towards a goal by moving, walking, and running around in a 5.3 by 5.3 m interactive playground. We investigate whether we can increase coordination in movement between players by changing the game to enforce teamwork. This was done by letting the players in a team control one end each of a shared paddle, as opposed to both players having separate paddles. Although the results should be taken with care, the comparisons do indicate that we could steer the amount of coordination between players in this way. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of distributed team play on the level of coordination. The results indicate that coordination goes down if the teammate is at another location. In this distributed team setting, enforced team work through a connected paddle still leads to a higher level of measured coordination. In contrast, our current analysis of self-reported social presence did not show a clear difference, not favoring enforced team work nor a particular team distribution. With the DIPP and this study we provide a new direction for distributed exertion games with a focus on aspects of team play.
Robby van Delden, Steven Gerritsen, Dennis Reidsma, Dirk Heylen
A Throw Training System Utilizing Visual and Sound Effects
Abstract
This study introduces a throw training system that aims to improve the athletic performance of children who see themselves as not good at sports. The lack of exercise among children has become more severe in recent years, the main causes being fewer opportunities and environments in the neighborhood that enable children to play outside and engage in sports activities. The authors of this study have developed a throw training system that utilizes visual and sound effects. The system is designed for use in elementary school physical education (PE) classes and allows for enjoyable use, training, and learning. The effectiveness of the system was evaluated by elementary school students who participated in a set of experiments in a PE-class setting.
Kaoru Sumi, Yuki Tsukamoto
Play with Me! Gender-Typed Social Play Behavior Analysis in Interactive Tag Games
Abstract
Promoting social behavior is one of the key goals in interactive games. In this paper, we present an experimental study in the Interactive Tag Playground (ITP) to investigate whether social behaviors reported in literature can also be observed through automated analysis. We do this by analyzing players’ positions and roles, which the ITP logs automatically. Specifically, we address the effect that gender and age have on the amount of tags and the distance that players keep between them. Our findings largely replicate existing research, although not all hypothesized differences reached a level of statistical significance. With this proof-of-concept study, we have paved the way for the automated analysis of play, which can aid in making interactive playgrounds more engaging.
Alejandro Moreno, Ronald Poppe, Dirk Heylen

Game Studies

Frontmatter
Deep Learning for Classifying Battlefield 4 Players
Abstract
In our research, we aim to predict attributes of human players based on observations of their gameplay. If such predictions can be made with sufficient accuracy, games can use them to automatically adapt to the player’s needs. In previous research, however, no conventional classification techniques have been able to achieve accuracies of sufficient height for this purpose. In the present paper, we aim to find out if deep learning networks can be used to build accurate classifiers for gameplay behaviours. We compare a deep learning network with logistic regression and random forests, to predict the platform used by Battlefield 4 players, their nationality and their gaming culture. We find that deep learning networks provide significantly higher accuracies and superior generalization when compared to the more conventional techniques for some of these tasks.
Marjolein de Vries, Pieter Spronck
Do Warriors, Villagers and Scientists Decide Differently? The Impact of Role on Message Framing
Abstract
The role people play in real or virtual environments can have an influence on how we make decisions. Furthermore, it has been suggested that stimulating analytic or impulsive information processing can influence framing effects. In this study we combine these previous results and examine whether virtual role-playing influences the strength of the effect of message framing. Participants were subjected to an experiment in which they played different characters in a computer game. Within the game, the effects of different types of message framing where measured. The results suggest that susceptibility to attribute framing increases when role-playing an impulsive character. The current study contributes to the existing literature both by demonstrating a novel effect virtual role playing has on our information processing, as well as by introducing games as a novel medium for studying the effects of message framing.
J. Siebelink, P. van der Putten, M. C. Kaptein
The Effect of Gender, Native English Speaking, and Age on Game Genre Preference and Gaming Motivations
Abstract
Gender, native English speaking, and age significantly effect game genre preference and gaming motivations. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression shows they explain 5 %–10 % of the variance in game genre preference and up to 7 % in gaming motivation. Gender coefficients show males prefer the competition-based First Person Shooter (FPS) games while females prefer the immersion-based Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). Native English speaking coefficients show native English speakers prefer the text-heavy MMORPGs, while non-Native English speakers prefer the text-light Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas (MOBA) and FPS games. Age coefficients show younger players prefer MOBAs, while older players prefer FPS games. When it comes to gaming motivation, males are more driven by competition, while females are more driven by immersion and social motivations. Native English speaking only factors into two motivations related to immersion. Age coefficients show that gaming motivation decreases across the board as players grow older.
Shoshannah Tekofsky, Paul Miller, Pieter Spronck, Kevin Slavin
Measuring Affective, Physiological and Behavioural Differences in Solo, Competitive and Collaborative Games
Abstract
In this paper, we aim to measure affect and behaviour indicators of players to understand how they feel in different play modes and how games could be improved to enhance user experience, immersion and engagement. We analyse the affective states in sets of two users playing a Wii video game in three play modes: solo, competitive and collaborative. We measured their physiological signals and observed the non-verbal behaviours to infer their affective states. Although other studies have looked at these signals in gaming, this work focuses on the differences between the three play modes aforementioned. Our results show that: (1) Players experience similar levels of arousal during both solo and collaborative play modes; (2) players’ heart rates are significantly correlated during the competitive mode but not during the collaborative one; and (3) heart rate variability is a good indicator of engagement when playing video games.
Daniel Gábana Arellano, Laurissa Tokarchuk, Hatice Gunes

Novel Applications and Tools

Frontmatter
The Oculus Rift Film Experience: A Case Study on Understanding Films in a Head Mounted Display
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to determine the level of narrative comprehension in films when watched in a virtual reality headset (Oculus Rift). A 360-degree live-action film was created and was shown to participants after which the level of comprehension of various literary aspects as well as the feeling of distraction and enjoyment were measured using questionnaires and interviews. Revealing how increased freedom to view a movie in virtual reality has an effect on storyline understanding, provided a framework to start a discussion on whether and how to utilize virtual reality as a means for storytelling through films.
Hannah Syrett, Licia Calvi, Marnix van Gisbergen
WWoW: World Without Walls Immersive Mixed Reality with Virtual Co-location, Natural Interactions, and Remote Collaboration
Abstract
Communicating and sharing knowledge through teleconferencing systems is a common phenomenon now a days. But the traditional remote collaboration systems lack naturalness and are not very immersive. Though existing mixed reality systems support natural interactions, many of them use 3D avatars to represent remote users, hence do not reflect finer movements and emotions of the remote users, and a number of them are quite cumbersome to setup and calibrate. We present our remote collaborative mixed reality environment which provides virtual co-location and gestural interactions using Kinect user image masks and skeletons and is simple to setup. The resulting system is both immersive and natural, gives a feeling to participants that they are in the same physical location, communicating and sharing knowledge objects through natural gestural controls and speech [1].
Ramesh Guntha, Balaji Hariharan, P. Venkat Rangan
My Drama: Story-Based Game for Understanding Emotions in Context
Abstract
This paper presents My Drama, a story-based game application that helps to understand emotions in context. The game was developed for young people with autism, who usually have trouble understanding the non-verbal expression of emotions. We combined elements of drama therapy and mobile game design to let players experience taking perspectives by assuming the role of the cartoon character and practice context-dependent recognition of expressed emotions in the story, and collecting of related to the story emotional expression photographs n in a known environment. The outcomes of a pilot test indicate that My Drama is a promising and engaging training tool for emotion understanding while collecting of emotional expression photographs increased the communication. Long-term research on its effectiveness is needed.
Xiaoyu Shen, Emilia I. Barakova
Building Game Scripting DSL’s with the Metacasanova Metacompiler
Abstract
Many video games rely on a Domain Specific Language (DSL) to implement particular features such as artificial intelligence or time and synchronization primitives. Building a compiler for a DSL is a time-consuming task, and adding new features to a DSL is hard due to the low flexibility of the implementation choice. In this paper, we introduce an alternative to hand-made implementations of compilers for DSLs for game development: the Metacasanova metacompiler. We show the advantages of this metacomplier in terms of simplicity of designing and coding requirements, and in terms of performance of the resulting code, whose efficiency is comparable with hand-made implementations in commercial general purpose languages.
Francesco Di Giacomo, Mohamed Abbadi, Agostino Cortesi, Pieter Spronck, Giuseppe Maggiore
Interaction Design Tools for Autism
Abstract
Children with Autism and Asperger Syndrome, though they are very different according to the broad spectrum of the criteria used for diagnosis, can be greatly supported by the use of new digital technologies in their daily lives, at school, at home, with their families. The paper shows the design approach to an interactive application for high-functioning children aged 14 to 18 in order to generate independence in the children, to ensure their safety, to create a network of aware and careful people regarding the Autism themes in order to better support families. The design of the application involves families, patients and educators.
Andrea Di Salvo, Paolo Marco Tamborrini
Poème Numérique: Technology-Mediated Audience Participation (TMAP) Using Smartphones and High-Frequency Sound IDs
Abstract
In this paper we discuss a setup for technology-mediated audience participation using smartphones and high-frequency sound IDs. Drawing from the insights of a research project on audience participation in live music we describe a setup for playful music interaction composed of smartphones. In this setup the audience needs to install a smartphone app. Using high-frequency sound IDs music samples and colors can be triggered on the audience’s smartphones without the need to have an internet connection. The resulting soundscape is determined by the samples and parameters selected by the artist as well as by the location audience members choose in the performance space.
Fares Kayali, Christoph Bartmann, Oliver Hödl, Ruth Mateus-Berr, Martin Pichlmair

Workshop: Playable Cities

Frontmatter
From Playable to Playful: The Humorous City
Abstract
This writing is focusing on the concept of play in the city. In pursuit of ideal city, the concept of play has been neglected, pushed to labelled corners, assigned to certain age bracket. Playable city movement has brought the play in to the dialogue on city, the contemporary smart city, underlining the factors such as humor, spontaneity and pleasure. This paper introduces taking the playable city a step further towards a playful city, where play is a continuous process of city living, seamlessly integrated into the smart structure of the city, where citizens can reinvent the infrastructure for humorous purposes.
Chamari Edirisinghe, Anton Nijholt, Adrian David Cheok
Play in the Algorithmic City
Abstract
In this paper, the algorithmic city is introduced as a framework for understanding urban space in terms of its underlying code and systems. It is connected to urban codemaking, a playful approach to public art that asks players to engage with codes of urban space. To connect these two concepts in a framework for pervasive game design, players are framed as sensors and actuators within the algorithmic city to make it more playable.
Troy Innocent
Visual Abstraction for Games on Large Public Displays
Abstract
From its earliest developments video game design has arguably been closely coupled to technological evolution particularly in relation to graphics. In very early games the limitations of technology led to highly abstracted graphics but as technology improved, abstraction has largely been left behind as developers strive towards ever-greater realism. Thus, games are generally drawing from conventions established in the mediums of film and television, and potentially limiting themselves from the possibilities abstraction may offer. In this research, we consider whether highly abstracted graphics are perceived as detrimental to gameplay and learnability by current gamers through the creation of a game using very low-resolution display that would accommodate a range of display options in a playable city. The results of trialing the game at a citywide light festival event where it was played by over 150 people indicated that abstraction made little difference to their sense of engagement with the game, however it did foster communication between players and suggests abstraction is a viable game design option for playable city displays.
David Gullick, Daniel Burnett, Paul Coulton

Workshop: Virtual Agents for Social Skills Training

Frontmatter
project SENSE – Multimodal Simulation with Full-Body Real-Time Verbal and Nonverbal Interactions
Abstract
This paper presents a multimodal simulation system, project-SENSE, that combines virtual reality and full-body motion capture technologies with real-time verbal and nonverbal communication. We introduce the technical setup and employed hardware and software of a first prototype. We discuss the capabilities of the system for the investigation of cooperation paradoxes and the effects of direct nonverbal mimicry. We argue that this prototype lays the technological basis for further research in interpersonal and social skills, as well as the social and emotional consequences of nonverbal mimicry in sustained interactions.
Hossein Miri, Jan Kolkmeier, Paul J. Taylor, Ronald Poppe, Dirk Heylen
A Conversational Agent that Reacts to Vocal Signals
Abstract
Conversational agents are increasingly being used for training of social skills. One of their most important benefits is their ability to provide natural interaction with humans. This work proposes to extend conversational agents’ benefits for social skills training by analysing the emotion conveyed by the user’s speech. For that, we developed a new system that captures emotions from human voice and, combined with the context of a particular situation, uses this to influence the internal state of the agent and change its behaviour. An example of the system’s use is shown and its limitations and advantages are discussed, together with the internal workflow of the system.
Daniel Formolo, Tibor Bosse
Supporting Group Reflection in a Virtual Role-Playing Environment
Abstract
This paper presents an approach to supporting group reflection in a virtual role-playing environment with intelligent support designed for the training customer complaint management in electronic shops. The single-player design involves a player and an AIML chat bot in a 2D web-based virtual environment. Building on this, a group reflection tool was designed, which is supposed be used in a training center environment. It features a dashboard design which includes different visualizations of player performance based on automated individual analyses of players’ communicative behavior, as well as enriched replays of their conversations, and the ability to make annotations. The separation of the application into the actual role-playing game and the group reflection tool is assumed to support the learning process of responding to customer complaints by changing perspective, receiving feedback, and recognizing different ways of problem solving.
Julia Othlinghaus, H. Ulrich Hoppe
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment
Editors
Ronald Poppe
John-Jules Meyer
Remco Veltkamp
Mehdi Dastani
Copyright Year
2017
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-49616-0
Print ISBN
978-3-319-49615-3
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49616-0

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