Tag Archives: biofeedback

“Critical Gaming: Interactive History and Virtual Heritage” Ashgate Digital Research in the Arts and Humanities series

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I have written Critical Gaming: Interactive History And Virtual Heritage (Ashgate Publishing, Digital Research in the Arts and Humanities series ), it has now gone to their production team and I hope it will be published roughly mid 2015.

Introduction: Critical Gaming: Interactive History And Virtual Heritage can be seen as a collection of chapters designed to provoke thought and discussion, or it can be seen and used as separate chapters that may help class debate in courses dealing with the Digital Humanities, Game Studies (especially in the areas of Serious Games and Game-based Learning), or aspects of Virtual Heritage. While there are very few books in this intersecting area, the range of topics that could be investigated and debated is huge. My primary target groups of readers are those academics and students who wish to investigate how games and virtual environments can be used in teaching and research to critique issues and topics in the humanities. In particular I want to investigate re-occurring broad issues in the design, playtesting and evaluation of serious games/ playful learning/game-based learning for interactive history and for virtual heritage.

Chapter 1: Digital Humanities And The Limits of Text provides a reasoned argument for the preponderance of text-based research in the digital humanities but argues for the importance and relevance of non-text based projects and three-dimensional media that augments rather than replaces text. It also proposes ways of improving classroom knowledge via spatial media.

Chapter 2: Game-based Learning And The Digital Humanities asks if there should there be a manifesto and singular definition of ‘game’? Should we be more open-minded in defining games and applying them totally or in part to historical and heritage-based simulations? Do definitions of ‘games as systems’ or as ‘procedural rhetoric’ offer enough guidance in developing and evaluating historical simulations and virtual heritage projects? In answering this question, the chapter includes suggestions gleaned from three case studies.

Chapter 3: Virtual Heritage focuses on intersections between Virtual Reality, Games and Digital Humanities. Is Virtual Reality still relevant? I argue that the increasing power and superior accessibility of computer games has already absorbed much of traditional Virtual Reality. Has Virtual Reality merged into games, is Virtual Reality within the financial and technical reach of non-expert users? If so which Virtual Reality techniques have become mainstream and accessible? What is the future of Virtual Reality and how will it affect Digital Humanities, are there specific areas we should focus on?

Chapter 4: Game-based History And Historical Simulations surveys games used for history and historical learning. Which theories can help us design and critique for history and heritage-based projects? Serious games research typically use modified computer games as virtual learning environments. Virtual heritage projects typically aim to provide three-dimensional interactive digital environments that aid the understanding of new cultures and languages rather than merely transfer learning terms and strategies from static prescriptive media such as books. As an intersection between the two fields, game-based historical learning aims to provide ways in which the technology, interactivity, or cultural conventions of computer gaming can help afford the cultural understanding of the self, of the past, or of others with mindsets quite different to our own.

Chapter 5: Virtual Heritage And Digital Culture covers definitions and major issues in Virtual Heritage. I propose six general aims for virtual heritage and I suggest three key concepts, inhabited placemaking, cultural presence and cultural significance. I also suggest objectives that a scholarly infrastructure should undertake to improve the field.

Chapter 6: Worlds, Roles And Rituals explores the nature, purpose and attributes of worlds, role-playing and rituals. Why are definitions of world so difficult to find? How can worlds be realised via digital simulations, can role-playing in computer games be developed further? Who should be able to read and interpret and perform rituals and why? Part of this chapter was initially published as an essay in the International Journal of Role Playing (Champion, 2009) and the passage has been considerably modified.

Chapter 7: Joysticks of Death, Violence And Morality is a theoretical attempt to outline types of violence in computer games and develop a short framework for types of interaction in virtual heritage projects. What is violence, how is it portrayed in games and are there particular issues in virtual simulations? This chapter sketches out both factors leading to violence in digital heritage projects and reasons involving their widespread occurrence. Finally I will suggest alternatives to violent interaction when applied to digital heritage projects.

Chapter 8: Intelligent Agents, Drama and Cinematic Narrative discusses Selmer Bringsjord’s ideas on interactive narrative and whether we can provide alternatives that help develop dramatically compelling interactive narrative. Why has storytelling been so difficult? Why is the Star Trek Holodeck so widely cited but no one has come close to building anything remotely similar?

Chapter 9: Biofeedback, Space And Place discusses ways in which biofeedback and brain controlled interfaces and theories of empathy and embodiment can be used to develop games and simulations for history and heritage based games. How can we better integrate new research into the body and the brain and recent technologies that incorporate the senses or further integrate recent technologies with the environment?

Chapter 10: Applying Critical Thinking And Critical Play summarizes the arguments and findings of the chapters and proposes a quick way of validating critical theories about gaming. Can game-related projects and teaching leverage critical thinking skills? The chapter includes a sample checklist to determine whether a critical position and argument about gaming has merit.

Visiting Fellows to work with me at Curtin University in Visualisation, 2013

3D and game editors, Academic, Architecture, Biofeedback, design, Digital Humanities, game, virtual heritage, visualisation, , , , , , , , , , ,

I am very happy to announce that two Visting Fellows and two Early Career Visiting Fellows will work with me in October and November on various projects.

They are (and please note, dates are provisional):

Visiting Fellows

 

Nov 4-27: Dr Jeffrey Jacobson, http://www.publicvr.org

To provide examples of interactive and immersive environments featuring architecture and archaeology of the ancient world, to run inside Curtin’s new visualisation facility, iDome, Stereo Wall, and/or possibly the Wedge. Upload and run public VR 3D models inside UNITY on the iDome. These are the Virtual Egyptian Temple, Living Forest, Theater District of Pompeii. Prototype ancient heritage sites to run on the 0.5 CAVE (actually it is a Wedge). Design and pilot evaluation environment for potential use in humanities subjects, including history, and the visualisation undergraduate degree.

Nov 16-Dec 16: Dr Rob H. Warren, Canada, http://blog.muninn-project.org
Link 3D models in virtual environments (Unity real-time engine) to the archival databases to create a specific pilot of a World War 1 simulation using accurate historic geo-data, weather data, astronomical data, and historical records. Design and pilot evaluation environment for potential use in humanities subjects, including history, and the visualisation undergraduate degree. Link to colleagues in New Zealand and Canada to discuss potential research collaborations

Early Career Visiting Fellows

Nov 4-11: Andrew Dekker, University of Queensland http://itee.uq.edu.au/~dekker/ OR http://uq.academia.edu/AndrewDekker

We will work together on the following project: Camera tracking and biofeedback for indirect interaction with virtual environments. This project will connect biofeedback devices and camera tracking devices with equipment in the Curtin Data Visualisation Facility (CDVF) and provide a research platform to evaluate how biofeedback can be a meaningful interaction component for virtual environments, especially for augmenting socially believable agents, and to enrich the apparent “life” and “atmosphere” of digitally created architectural environments.

Nov 18-25: Dr Hafizur Rahman, Bangladesh http://bdheritage.info and http://ttclc.net

Create a streamlined 3D model data and 3D virtual environment workflow, analyse and comparing different image modelling tools, and explain how their optimal deployment for community web portals of digitalised cultural heritage.

Acquiring 3D models for artifacts is always expensive, as it typically requires a 3D laser scanner and relevant training. However, 3D modeling of small artifacts is possible to produce with photographs using low cost software such as 3D Som Pro (http://www.3dsom.com/). This software can produce 3D wire mesh and baked images for rendering, which can later be use as a source for augmented reality application for interactive public display. Free AR Toolkit /BuildAR can be used here for making this interactive display for museums/heritage institutes and interested community groups who currently lack high end technological resources and related skills.

We will also compare the above to insight 3D (http://insight3d.sourceforge.net/), which is free and open source. We will produce schematic workflows, incorporating Blender 3D for modeling and we will consider alternatives such as Google SketchUp.

fascinating biofeedback equipment-BITalino kit

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The low cost (€149/$197 + shipping and taxes) kit of modular blocks includes a swathe of physiological sensors that can be broken out to use individually or linked together and used in whatever combination you’re after. BITalino’s approach is plug and play, to keep things as simple as possible. The sensors in the kit can interface with computing platforms such as Arduino (and derivatives) and Raspberry Pi, says project lead Hugo Silva. BITalino also includes Bluetooth connectivity so can be used in desktop and mobile environments.

“Currently there are several APIs for platforms including Android OS, Java or Python; BITalino is also cloud / web compatible through a software framework based on WebSockets, HTML5 and CSS3,” he tells TechCrunch

http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/05/bitalino/

Sensors included in the BITalino kit are:

  • an EMG (electromyography) to track muscle activation
  • an EDA (electrodermal Activity) to measure skin activity/moisture levels
  • a LUX light sensor to monitor ambient light or (used in conjunction with a light source) to track blood volume pulse data
  • an ECG (electrocardiogram) to track heart rate, monitor stress etc
  • an accelerometer to track limb movements

The board also includes an LED block for visual feedback, a microcontroller unit and a power management block to power the other units.

Youtube video:

Biofeedback and Virtual Environments journal article out

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It has been published:
Erik Champion and Andrew Dekker, Biofeedback And Virtual Environments, International Journal of Architectural Computing, Multi Science Publishing, ISSN 1478-0771 (Print), Volume 9, Number 4 / December 2011. Full Text PDF (481.5 KB), DOI 10.1260/1478-0771.9.4.377, Pages 377-396. Online Date: Friday, February 03, 2012.

New paper on Biofeedback and Architecture to be presented at CAADRIA 2011, 27-29 April

Architecture, Conference, design, game, virtual heritage, , , ,

I just sent the final paper off to the organizers of CAADRIA 2011.
It is rather a rare paper by Andrew Dekker and myself  as it talks about atmosphere, 19th Century German empathy theory, Heidegger (indirectly), Wild Divine biofeedback and Zombies. Actually it is not really about Zombies but about how indirect biofeedback could be used for architectural visualization, social worlds and virtual places in general. I was trying to make the case for indirect biofeedback to augment the environment, and to allow enhanced information or interaction based on mastering/achieving calm, rather than on raising excitement levels. It is a step in my attempt to convey an experience of holy places and cultural sites using (indirect) biofeedback. Biofeedback has been seen as highly subjective, variable, and unreliable as a direct interaction method which is one of the reasons I am so interested it as indirect and augmenting rather than direct and dominant. Anyway, the abstract follows:

INDIRECT BIOFED ARCHITECTURE
Strategies to best utilise biofeedback tools and interaction metaphors within digital architectural environments

This paper explains potential benefits of indirect biofeed-back used within interactive virtual environments, and reflects on an earlier study that allowed for the dynamic modification of a virtual environment’s graphic shaders, music and artificial intelligence (of Non Playing Characters) based on the biofeedback of the player. It then examines both the potential and the issues in applying biofeed-back (already effective for games) to digital architectural environ-ments, and suggests potential uses such as personalization, object creation, atmospheric augmentation, filtering, and tracking.

Postdoc / Visiting Fellow opportunities

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I am not sure this is news for this site, but I have been lucky enough to be awarded a Massey University Research Fellowship (URF) which will pay for teaching relief for a semester in 2011. My university in its wisdom only supplements sabbatical or study leave research overseas, so I intend to look for an appropriate visiting fellow/scholar/professor roles in other countries next year. That may mean in 2011 this blog will hibernate a tad. Anyway, I’d appreciate knowing of opportunities in cultural heritage and new media, virtual heritage, digital architecture and design, interaction design or game design. I am also more and more interested in collaborative design and learning, not just because I am speaking on the topic in a few weeks here and next month in Italy, but it truly is fascinating (edusim, wave in a box, multi-touch, group biofeedback and camera tracking etc)! Ok, back on topic, under this post I will accumulate links to related visiting fellow and postdoc opportunities-I have trouble finding appropriate ones so I am assuming I am not alone.

Please Biofeed the Zombies demo video up on Youtube

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Our paper on biofeedback used for a half-life 2 zombie game was shown at DiGRA 2007 (Toyko). We presented a new demo movie last week at UX Australia 2010 in Melbourne during our talk for Blood Sweat and Fears which is now up on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-MinR-17CA. Thanks to Andrew Dekker!

PS I love the idea to sketchnote conference talks.

Gameplay Therapy Using Biofeedback grant-fully funded

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from initial grant application..

Research question: can biofeedback help ADHD sufferers improve their attention, and awareness of their own reactions and that of others? Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a neurobehavioral developmental disorder, commonly results in attention deficit, hyperactivity and/or impulsiveness, especially in children. Entertainment media such as computer games do not typically develop their literacy, improve their attention and awareness of their own reactions and moods, or engage their awareness of other players.

Hypothesis: Using entertaining and creatively configured biofeedback I believe we can help such children (or adults) monitor and improve their own reactions.

Objective: To develop a biofeedback device that connects to a multiplayer game and improves the attention span of participants and helps them to self-regulate their social behavior.

Methodology: Create (using Maya 2009 unlimited) and connect a popular virtual environment editor (URL: www.unity3d.com) to a biofeedback sensor, developed by the emotiv company (URL: http://emotiv.com/), and test if it has potential to improve ADHD and general social awareness through biofeedback that constructively and creatively affects the game-play. Low-risk human ethics approval will be sought for pilot study testing of five participants, and use a subjective questionnaire correlated to the biofeedback data to see whether the pilot appears to enhance players’ understanding of their own and others behavior while inside the test environment. Two players will encounter each other over two sessions, alternating wearing the emotiv headgear or a nonworking facsimile headgear. They won’t know one works and one does not to ensure there is no placebo effect.

Aim: Show biofeedback does enhance their sense of immersion and awareness of their own reactions and body state, and awareness of others.  NB: This is to test whether the technology and pilot content is suitable for full-scale deployment, not as a psychology experiment.

Previous work: at University of Queensland we captured players’ biofeedback to creatively enhance the rendered environment through the game’s graphic shaders. The paper was presented at DiGRA 2007 conference in Tokyo, (entitled “Please Biofeed the Zombies: Enhancing the Gameplay and Display of a Horror Game Using Biofeedback”). At MIT 6: In transitions conference at MIT in April 2009, I presented more serious uses of biofeedback, including therapeutically appropriate exemplars.

MiT 6: in Transition paper (exclusive!)

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I did not get the paper for my abstract published at the main site next to my abstract — too late or quality control 🙂 — so I have uploaded the paper on future interactive uses of biofeedback here. Please don’t cite as I may change and submit for publication…

UPDATE: CURRENT PAPER VERSION AT MIT 6 CONFERENCE WEBSITE. Click on the hyperlinked title of the abstract to view the 5mb PDF.