New Technologies Are Emerging Computer Science Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

STUDENT NUMBER: M00417359

Group C

Lecturer: Dr. P. Ramsamy

SUMMARY

New technologies are emerging with several techniques used for interaction developed in respect to Reality Based Interaction (RBI). RBI’s concepts amalgamate all these emerging interaction styles. Using this mode of interaction opens new opportunity for future research. The use of this technology leads to the introduction of the design of a tangible user interface with the use of processing, reacTIVision, fiducials and the use of TUIO. The "Bloops" prototype was designed using Novel Interaction Technology and Human Computer Interaction (HCI).This report explains the iterative development of the prototype game "Bloops" which was developed with the use of Processing and Reactivision. The problems encountered and also successful outcome in the development process was also outlined.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

The past few decades have seen different interfaces derived from Windows, Icons, mouse and pointing devices (WIMP). Advancement in technology have brought about POST-WIMP method of interaction which is the use augmented tangible interaction reality, virtual, mixed, ubiquitous and pervasive computing. Many applications are insinuated to gain from the use of these interaction methods, in terms of easiness and performance (Beaudouin-Lafon & Lassen, 2000). These technologies are mostly used in electronics and devices used for interaction nowadays e.g. the iPhone/iPad devices (augmented). Reality based Interaction (RBI) use four themes which work with the real world interaction. These methods are Naïve Physics, Social Awareness Skills (SAS), Body Awareness Skills (BAS) and Environmental Awareness Skills (EAS). The use of these themes in respect to Novel Interaction Technologies brought about the design of Bloops. Video games are very engaging and are mostly liked by kids due to its interactive nature. They get to see objects responding to the movement or gestures they produce through interaction with the use of a game pad, keyboards, joystick (WIMP/Post-WIMP). Games have a positive impact which makes learning fun. These Video games are played not just to win but to increase the brains IQ. ‘Bloops’ is an educational IQ game for kids between the ages of 10-14

With the use of an interactive tangible user interface devices such as fiducial markers and a camera, this game educates kids more on synonyms, mathematics and science in a learning environment while having fun.

DESIGN CONCEPT

Player-Centric Game Design was the approach followed to develop the Bloops IQ quiz game. With this approach, the designer imagines and envisions as a representative player of the game of which should be created (Ernest Adams 2010 pg. 30). In other words, to develop a game that entertains a player, designers should imagine that they are players of the game and must meet the required expectation of the player’s desires, preferences and entertainment while developing the game.

The priority is placed on to the designer’s art and creativity during design and development on how the entertaining aspect of the game is going to be incorporated in to the game to make it fun and enjoyable for the players. Furthermore, the designer has to act as a representative player of the game and envisions or imagines what it takes to play the game. When using the this approach (Player-Centric Game Design ), the designer should keep in mind of the many reactions the players will experience while playing and interacting with the game for example; its usability, user experience, satisfaction and motivation.

The Bloops game depicts the design approach (Player-Centric design approach) which was used for its development. Much focus was incorporated in to envisioning on how children who react and answer questions in an IQ computer quiz game. The children are faced with three different levels in the game that they have to play to accomplish the game and find a winner. Consequently, the game is meant to check on their English language skills, mathematical level and skill of understanding basic calculations plus science as this would help check on their retentive memory and build more knowledge in them.

RATIONAL

Intuitive

Video games scenes do play role for children in building cognitive maturation. Children develop stimuli while playing video games that helps in sharpening their IQ and try to transfer that knowledge they have acquired to their respective environments (R. Grant Steen 2009 pg.41). Therefore children will be prompted to try and play the game after recognising the benefit of learning from it. The bloops game will be able to teach them new English words that they will become familiar with and use in their daily vocabulary.

Multiplayer

Depending on the kind and type of experience and satisfaction a designer wants to incorporate in to a computer game, multiplayer games bring and raise the level of competiveness in any game where by players challenge one another on a one to one basis (Nick Luppa and Terry Borst 2007 ). The bloops game being a two player game contributes to the immersion of the children in to the game and get interestingly involved to challenge one another through the different levels of play.

Collaborative

Communication message feedback from the bloops game and coordination messages from the game enhances collaborative learning among the players of the game. These messages help to guild the players on what is happening in the game, what should be done and also serve in a way to help plan of strategies of answering the right question (Thanasis D. et al. 2011 p. 170) Collaborative learning together takes place while thinking on how to go about the game.

Challenging

The ‘bloops’ game is a two player competitive IQ game that comprises of three levels namely: Level 1 (Verbal Aptitude), Level 2 (Numerical Aptitude) and level 3 (Technical Aptitude) where by players have to challenge themselves in the three different levels of the game by answering the set question, getting them right which intern marks are awarded.

Challenging computer games come with intellectual challenge that encourage the children to think and try to solve the challenges they are faced with in the game and this comes with the different levels of difficulty in the game (Barrie Gunter, 1998 p. 27).

Motivating

Children will always love to learn new things that they encounter at any one point. This helps to improve on their constructiveness, cognition and abstract thinking which in the long run improves ways of learning. Curiosity build when children socialize together and talk about the game with their fellow children which creates awareness among them, watching other children playing the bloops game to try and answer the IQ quiz questions will motivate the children (Barrie Gunter, 1998) to understand the value of learning socially. This engages children to play more often together spending more time on the game.

Design Process

The basic framework of the game was designed in respect to reality based interaction theme. The first stage for the design process was considering the targeted audience, which are children within the age of 10-14 years old. The next is collecting various materials needed for the game production, designing of storyboard, developing the game, testing and evaluation .The coding aspect of the game was done with the use of processing language, and the interface was designed using adobe Photoshop CS4. Sounds where downloaded online and questions where derived from doing research on information which questions would best suit the IQ game. The reacTIVision software was used alongside with a camera to track the various levels and answers to the questions of the fiducial markers.

Processing

Processing language is an open source free Java derived programming language used to design applications of various types. This application perform functions of java but in a simpler way, giving users a less stressfull experience while writing codes. Furthermore,

Processing communicates withe reacTIVision throught the TUIO library available on processing.org. The library has several methods like getSymbolID(), getAngle(), getAngleDegree() that helps to communicate the marker being shown in the processing environment and the current angle and state of the marker in the environment among other methods.

ReacTIVison

This is an application that tracks fiducials with their respective id and the use of camera for interaction.

TUIO

It’s a framework that defines a common protocol and API for tangible multi-touch surfaces. The TUIO allows the transmission of an abstract description of interactive surfaces, including touch events and tangible object states. It encapsulates different client libraries for various programming environments. The main advantages of using TUIO is that it works on most programming languages and media environments (Liu, 2009)

Fiducials

These are pointed black and white images consisting of circles and clots in varying patterns. ReacTIVision uses the fiducial symbols to track the functionality of a physical object known as tangible, which are digital representation of data stored in the database

Design phase

The first thing done in the design phase is designing images. The background image for the splash screen and the start level images were downloaded online and were edited with the use of Adobe Photoshop. Images of levels, images of right and wrong answers were also designed.

The three levels of the game were designed in such a way that Player 1 and player two would play subsequently versing each other. When player one answers a question, focus is then pushed to player 2 therefore, they would both compete together in each level

Sound and images were designed to be displayed in case the right or wrong answers were answered. Respective sound and images were put in place to give right feedback to the players. This would help alert the player on their performance. This was done because the main objective of the game is designing an educational game, so, for any question answered wrongly the wrong answer image will show or the right answer image.

Gaming environment

As cited by Alan D (2008), gaming environments are a good platform for students to exercise their creativity and apply abstract concepts learned from class rooms therefore gaming environments provide communication to a player through the context of the situation at hand or the scenario being simulated. The bloops game provides a scenario where children are being asked questions that need to be answered correctly. This engages active participation of children for feedback whether they have clearly understood what is being asked of them to answer. The use of animated graphics, picture background colours are used in the gaming environment to make the game attractive for the players to be motivated to try out and play the game.

There is evidence that Juul (2010) attributed to Computer games that are easy to learn how to play, engage more than two players, and have interactive graphical interfaces are fun. Usability and user experience are what make a game interesting and fun for the players to continue playing it over and over again. Having attractive graphics for the bloops game was high priority and it being two players based in order for a multiplayer to exist. The game becomes more fun when the players compete.

Benefits of Tangible user interfaces (TUI)

Tangible user interfaces is a way in which people interact with digital information through the physical world. The benefits of this mode of interaction are;

Tangible user interfaces people are able to manipulate physical information with their bare hands. This is possible because TUI’s are able to give physical forms to digital information where by the physical forms serve as both representations and controls for the digital counterparts (Hiroshi Ishii 2008).

Tangible user interfaces strive to increase human interaction and productivity by making digital tool far much easier to use requiring less effort to be manipulated. As cited by Ehud Sharlin et al (2004), tangible user interfaces make much use of spatiality depending on how much skill people are able to interact with the objects.

Furthermore, Tangible user interfaces provide support for cognitive improvement and development in people through movement of the body, sense of touching, feeling and building equipment (Africano D et al 2004)

Prototype

State diagram

Start is the beginning of the game; the instruction page then follows with brief instructions on how the game is to be played. Select level contains three different levels where the players can choose independently which level to play. In this case, level one has been selected for play. Level one contains An English Aptitude where children are going to be tested on their English language skills. The children will be introduced to synonyms where they will have to figure out words with similar meanings.

In level two, Children are then tested on their mathematical skills if they can complete numbers in a series of pattern. In level three, the children are introduced to science where they will have to know basic elements and try to figure out the answers of the elements when they are combined and their products. During game play two players verse each other. Player one plays with player two to compete in all the questions to answer them right for points. When the first level has been completed, focus is then transferred to the second level for play and lastly the third. The scores are then summed up at the end for all three levels to get the winner.

Libraries and functions Used in the Game

addTuioObject (),TUIO.* (TUIO library) - used to accept symbols.

ddf.minim.* (minim library) - used for sound in the game

setup(), draw() - used to run the game.

gifanimation() - used for animations in the game

PImage - used to images

new Timer() – used to create the timer in the game

Sound

Audio and sound in the bloops game creates a stimulation of the players by them becoming curious of what’s happening in the game (Barrie Gunter 1998). This helps to create attention and focus among the players who are interacting with the game. Furthermore, sound also brings about entertainment in the game for the players to be motivated to continue playing the game.

Timer

A timer was used in the bloops game to keep track of playing time in the game. This acts as a challenge and authority for the players to play within the available amount of time frame.

Puzzle

Score Board

The scoreboard in the bloops game depicts what is happening in the game at any one point of time. It’s a way of evaluating who is winning in the game and why? (John Maxwell 2007 pp.615, 616) The score assist players to plan and come out with better strategies of how to play and win during game as this is a significant role of having a scoreboard.

Animation

Game Evaluation

When evaluating a system the methods used are not always sufficient (Abowd & Mynatt, 2000) The game evaluation was done on the usability of the prototype in a children environment, the selection of participants which are the children ranging from ages 10-15 years of age is important and the location to interact with the system was put in place. The evaluation methods applied to the game are as follows

Questionnaires: The type of questionnaire used for this evaluation is the forced choice evaluation

Observation: this evaluation method was used to enable the team know how well the developed prototype meets the requirements. A total of five children were used for the evaluation exercise three of whom were boys and two girls, the location was in controlled environment in a usability laboratory to reduce noise and distractions, while the children were interacting with the game under no supervision a video camera was mounted in a place to capture the relevant actions and behaviors, time of completion and through their reactions we are able to know what errors to correct.

Queries that the evaluation process answered

How easy is the system to learn and use?

How effective is the designed prototype to the children as a game?

How efficient is the game in terms of playing?

How much satisfaction is the game to its players? Are they motivated to play the game?

Do users get easily familiar with the interfaces and interaction of the game being easy to remember?

Therefore all this data was then depicted on a chart showing the various outcomes

Human centered Design Approach: this is a method which is centered on the usability issues of the game Bloops, choosing this method enable us to identify the usability problems at every stage of the game interface, functionalities and location problems or errors that are not always found when conducting user testing. For example the overall graphics of the interfaces and how engaging, challenging, educating and entertaining the game is.

Heuristic Evaluation

This is a combination of experts where they get together to evaluate a product or system (Sharp et al (2007). This is done through carrying out a walk through during the inspection of the prototype or system. A walk through was carried out by masters students who had good experience in designing products like computer games. The evaluation criteria they followed was checking how interactive, if the bloops prototype followed the common good design principles, errors raised during the execution, menus, graphical design and if the prototype was working well to best suit its educational purpose for the children.

The results were as follows:

The design prototype was good in terms of design layout, sound, and images.

The prototype was interactive to engage the children in a learning environment where they would be engaged and motivated to learn. Children would select levels of play that they so desired to start to play with.

The prototype game followed their curriculum of study in school which would benefit them and increase on their awareness and knowledge.

How users viewed the game on a scale of 1-10 across time of 20 minutes

Project

I made sure that I worked as the programmer, developer and evaluator to ensure that the various components of the game such as, designing, coding, editing of pictures in adobe Photoshop CS6, fixing the game score, making the game work as a two player game, selection of level, image loading, playing of sounds, moving from one level to another, implementation of the TUIO, ensuring game feedback methods and all other necessary requirements for the prototype to be developed and work perfectly was all achieved.

Benefits

The benefits gained from this game are learning processing language within few weeks of the beginning of the lecture through a series of examples, looking at game concepts that were developed by other programmers and using their experience in mine, working as an individual gave me more courage to striving to achieve a goal which is designing a prototype game. Questions being asked in the game are questions never known by me.

Challenges

The first challenge encountered was learning processing language; the second was coming up with a concept for the game. Furthermore, giving the game a name and starting the design of the game. While coding, the major challenge encountered is making the game work as a two player game. The problem was solved when the open processing website was visited to see a game that has the two player functionality. It took a while to make the game work after sleepless nights. Another problem that arose during the game is implementing the timer. The timer worked, but later looked unimportant since the game won’t end when the time runs out because of player 2. The last problem encountered is the score, having to code for the right score to be given accurately in the whole game of the players though it didn’t take much time to be solved.

Conclusion

Getting involved in this project impacted a positive impact in my IT life, because I learnt a new programming language and also understanding the value of my team and enjoying Team work. The use of TUIO as also added to the knowledge I have concerning user interaction with a system.

Software and Hardware Requirements

For the game to be designed the software needed are

Software

Processing

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions.  Processing is used for learning, prototyping, and production.

ReacTIVision

ReacTIVision is an open source, cross-platform computer vision framework for the fast and robust tracking of fiducial markers attached onto physical objects, as well as for multi-touch finger tracking. It was mainly designed as a toolkit for the rapid development of table-based tangible user interfaces (TUI) and multi-touch interactive surfaces.

Hardware

Camera

The ReacTIVision software uses the camera to track the fiducial marker symbols.

Fiducial Markers

These are default "amoeba" fiducial set (black and white) designed specifically for reacTIVison for interaction.

PC

A PC is needed to run the software.