CHI 2007 Advance Program: Session Details

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Play & Exercise (Interactivity)

Tuesday
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM

 

Learning Shape Writing by Game Playing

Per-Ola Kristensson
Shumin Zhai

We present a computer game demonstration designed to efficiently and playfully teach users shape writing – a new text entry method for pen-based devices.

 

Building Upon Everyday Play

Haiyan Zhang
Björn Hartmann

Most of today’s video game strategies are based on a static set of game actions and props that remain oblivious to the player’s context and own creativity. Building Upon Everyday Play is the result of a collaboration of Control Freaks, a pervasive gaming experience project, and Exemplar, a toolkit that uses programming-by-demonstration to map continuous sensor data to high-level events. In combination, Building Upon Everyday Play furthers a pervasive gaming experience through appropriation of objects in the player’s environment and enables new ways to play. The project consists of a combination of a portable, wireless game controller that can be attached to everyday objects, and a programming-by-demonstration system that turns sensor data reported by the controller into suitable game events. In the proposed demonstration, participants will be able to control custom video games projected on a large 2D screen by attaching the controller to their bodies or provided household objects (appropriation), and to invent their own moves to control the provided game (invention).

 

REXplorer: A Mobile, Pervasive Spell-Casting Game for Tourists

Rafael Ballagas
Steffen Walz
Sven Kratz
Claudia Fuhr
Eugen Yu
Martin Tann
Jan Borchers
Ludger Hovestadt

REXplorer is a mobile, pervasive spell-casting game designed for tourists of Regensburg, Germany. The game uses location sensing to create player encounters with spirits (historical figures) that are associated with historical buildings in an urban setting. A novel mobile interaction mechanism of “casting a spell” (making a gesture by waving a mobile phone through the air) allows the player to awaken and communicate with a spirit to continue playing the game. The game is designed to make learning history fun for young (and young at heart) tourists and influence their path through the city.

 

Jogging the Distance

Shannon O'Brien
Florian "Floyd" Mueller
Alex Thorogood

Technology used in social jogging contexts can be improved. Research shows that people jog with others to socialize, an action not currently being focused on by current products.

 

Jogging Over a Distance

Florian "Floyd" Mueller
Shannon O'Brien
Alex Thorogood

Jogging is a healthy activity and many people enjoy jogging with others for social and motivational reasons. However, jogging partners might not always live in the same location, and it may be difficult to find a local jogger who runs at the same pace, we found through a survey. "Jogging over a Distance" allows joggers to socialize and motivate each other while jogging in geographically distant locations through the use of spatially distributed audio. We hope our approach encourages active and future joggers to jog more often, while simultaneously supporting their social friendships.

 

BodySpace: inferring body pose for natural control of a music player

Steven Strachan
Roderick Murray-Smith
Sile O'Modhrain

We describe the BodySpace system, which uses inertial sensing and pattern recognition to allow the gestural control of a music player by placing the device at different parts of the body. We demonstrate a new approach to the segmentation and recognition of gestures for this kind of application and show how simulated physical model-based techniques can shape gestural interaction.