Detail

Wearable and tangible interfaces as catalysts of embodiment in pervasive games

A strong tradition in visual arts has greatly influenced the importance of
photo-realism in digital media. Less than two decades ago VR technologies
were being touted as the paragon of HCI, with head-mounted displays as a
gateways to the virtual world. Ever since then focus has partially shifted
back to taking advantage of the physical world for HCI as mixed reality and
tangible interfaces became increasingly popular topics of research in the
last decade. In a broad scope, such approaches combine elements from our
physical with digital data, blending real and virtual under the prevalent
focus on photo-realism. Even the digital gaming industry, which its
increasing offer of titles sporting high production values in graphics and
sound, is also starting to explore motion-sensitive user input – with
varying degrees of success.

When driven by the desire to provide a seamless, photo-realistic mixed
reality experience for the sake of immersion, the development of a pervasive
game will likely find itself constrained in terms of mobility, autonomy,
location and replay value. However, experiences of immersion and embodiment
in mobile gaming applications cannot rely solely on providing
photo-realistic combinations of virtual and real elements.
Ubiquitous games are much more than a re-mapping of videogames to our
physical reality. They can empower players to explore and exploit the latent
affordances of the physical world, reinterpret their own relationship with
real, physical objects and rediscover social practices which have been all
but lost to the immateriality of digital media.

In this talk several works will be presented and discussed in the attempt to
reveal the importance of wearable and tangible user interfaces in providing
immersive gameplay in ubiquitous usage scenarios. Wearable interfaces can
become fashionable pieces of clothing which act as personal (even intimate)
game controllers, working in the scope of the player’s body-area network and
imbued with aesthetic values which may even influence gameplay. Through use
of such wearable devices players can then appropriate elements of the
physical world as gameplay elements in real-time in order to customize their
experience according to their lifestyle, including their daily routine and
their own personal preferences.