Design Briefs - Themes and Novel HCI Technology

Introduction

In game design there are many themes a game designer could look at in order to create a game. Focusing on one theme allows a designer to create a game with a specific purpose, a game that allows a player to feel a specific emotion. Change, glance and time are three precise themes can be developed in games. A developer could use a novel technology to attract gamers to play a game in a fun and innovative way. There are specific novel human computer interaction technologies that could be used in gaming such as Emotiv EPOC, Neurosky Headset, Kinect for Windows, Leap Motion and AR Toolkit. By combining a novel HCI technology and a specific theme a game developer can create a video game that allows a player to focus on a specification by interacting in an innovative way.

Themes

Change

Change as a theme is defined by making a person change their behaviour. Changing a person’s behaviour is very hard; one must try to slowly adapt a person’s mind so that they break their habit or routine. A game designer would have to use a technology to change their behaviour to meet their goals, a game example would be that players have always used a controller to control movements of a character, if a player used their mind to control their movement this would change their habit and break their routine. If the player found this method of control joyful they would continue to use it and create a new habit.

Figure 1- Player controlling character with her mind

Glance

Glance as a theme allows a player to quickly look over a large set of information and determine what information is necessary to achieve his/her goal. If a player could use a technology to help decrease the overload of information on a screen it would benefit the player greatly. An in game example of this is creating an AR toolkit so that when a player looks over a game environment the important information on the screen will become three dimensional and look like it is coming out of the screen. This technology allows players to quickly glance at a detailed game environment and analyze everything on the screen quickly. 

Figure 2 - AR used to determine targets at a quick glance

 

Time

Time as a theme is defined as change. A clock, game time and in game season changes are representations of change over time. These things can have a physiological effect on a player. An in game example would be if a player could control time with their mind using an Emotiv EPOC so that they could speed up time so they could control climate change and aging enemies. This could be an attack to kill opponents and it is a new representation of time.

“While time is not something that can be directly seen, smelled, tasted, touched or heard, it is something that as the psychologist Fraisse (1984) has noted, we perceive through changes in the world and the duration between changes” (Mitchell, 2007). If we wanted to create a new representation of time we would need to look at representations that already exist. In a game user interface time is usually represented as a horizontal line with an object travelling from point A to point B. “Representations of time in computer interface designs must reflect people's conceptions of time and represent the kinds of time that people require when using a computer.” (Mitchell, 2007). An idea that might convey time or change in a game using a technology could be to use a Neurosky Headset and let a frequency travel through a player’s ear to indicate time is running low or a change in the gaming world is about to occur.

Example of representation of time – Mortal Kombat Deception https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpJNECtjpuo

Novel HCI Technologies

Some novel HCI Technologies are the Emotiv Epoc, Neurosky Headset, Kinect for Windows, Leap Motion and AR Toolkits. Emotiv Epoc is a headset device that senses brainwaves and translates it into a computer. It can be used to allow players to control parts of a game using brain waves. Neurosky Headsets allows a person to hear frequencies. Kinect is a program that recognizes body gestures and interoperates it so that it can be used as meaningful data. Leap motion is similar to the Kinect; it deals with precise finger-based motion. AR Toolkits are camera-based and it creates an augmented reality. It can make things appear in a player’s environment.

Figure 3 - Neurosky Headset being used for an unconventional gaming controller

Figure 4 - Emotive Epoc

Using these types of novel technologies can produce new ways for gamers to play games in an interesting way. If we can create alternative methods to typical controllers it could open up diverse ways for players to play games and it could also create a new target audience for gaming systems.  

Questions to Consider

How could we implement these novel HCI technologies into new generation consoles?

Would these novel technologies attract a new customer base? If so, how would it affect the present target market?

Could these HCI technologies deal with haptic senses such as the nociceptors and target a wide enough market to do well (in terms of profit) in the gaming industry?

References

Mitchell, Marilyn . "Representations of time in computer inferface design." Humanities & Social Sciences papers. N.p., 1 Nov. 2007. Web. 7 Mar. 2013. <epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1233&context=hss_pubs>.

Figure 1 - http://media.onsugar.com/files/upl0/2/22911/08_2008/emotive.preview.jpg

Figure 2 - http://beefjack.com/files/2011/01/ar-games-2.jpg

Figure 3 - http://www.geekalerts.com/u/NeuroSky-Mindwave-Mobile-EEG-headset.jpg
Figure 4 - http://www.emotiv.com/upload/iblock/38a/header_set.gif