Category Archives: 3D and game editors

Virtual Heritage Metadata

3D and game editors, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, infrastructure,

Metadata

Are there recent advancements and agreements in the design use and sharing of metadata for Virtual Heritage? Recent modifications of CIDOC-CRM and Dublin Core particularly for 3D Heritage Models would be appreciated. CARARE version 2 is pubically available and there are various papers on the topic but I have not found any large-scale agreement and deployment of any scheme that focuses on 3D Virtual Heritage.

Because in 2007 and 2011, Laia Tost and I suggested virtual heritage projects should be based on: care, accuracy, sensitivity, effective and inspirational pedagogical features, is collaborative and evaluation-orientated. Extrapolating from these aims, I suggest the following features are desirable for designing 3D virtual heritage models or developing an infrastructure that can support virtual heritage models for the purpose of classroom teaching and public dissemination:

  1. Data accuracy: the level of accuracy and type of data capture method should be associated with the model, as well as the geographical location.
  2. Format limitations: any known limitations or required conditions due to the digital format or way in which the data was created, should also be associated with the model.
  3. Provenance: the record of ownership and scholarship and community input should be recorded and accessible (the source and the ownership rights).
  4. Community protocols: social, cultural and institutional protocols that guide who accesses the sourced cultural heritage and how that should affect the transmission, distribution and dissemination of the digitally simulated model.
  5. Authenticity: the known, extrapolated, omitted, simplified and imagined areas and components of the model should be identified in some form of thematic (and preferably standardised) schema.
  6. Cultural presence: models should aim towards explaining the cultural significance of the original site, and give an impression of the situated cultural value of the place as experienced by the original inhabitants.
  7. Evaluation Data: these aims should be clearly explained and any evaluation data of participants should be linked to (or otherwise associated with) the models.
  8. Purpose: the generic ways in which original creators and shareholders intended the models could be edited or otherwise modified should be described.

The first three considerations (and possibly all of the others, especially 5: Authenticity) require the careful and appropriate use of metadata.As Wise and Miller (1997) have noted, metadata (‘data about data’), allows users to be informed without having to access the entire body of data, it helps us find information and it helps us to group and link ‘bodies of information’ together. In 2008, Addison proposed the following virtual heritage metadata:

Type#Data Encoding/Format
Whati.HeritageID (a superset of existing WorldHeritageID)
 Ii.Title/brief description
 IiiHeritage Type/Classification (e.g.: cultural: archaeological …)
 iv.Heritage Time Period (e.g.: geologic or historic time)
 v.Heritage Time Span
Whyvi.Purpose (reason recorded/produced)
Howvii.Recording Device Parameters (type, sample rate, precision …)
 viii.Secondary Device(s) (data manipulation)
 ix.Environmental conditions
Whomx.Submitter and Date of Submission
 xi.Rights given/withheld
 xii.Author/Copyright Holder
 xiii.Sponsor/Funder/Client
Whenxiv.Date (of recording, manipulation)
Wherexv.Location (Latitude/Longitude + compass direction if applicable)

References

ADDISON, A. 2008. The Vanishing Virtual. In: KALAY, Y. E., KVAN, T. & AFFLECK, J. (eds.) New Heritage: New Media and Cultural Heritage. Oxon UK: Routledge.

BENNETT, M. J. 2015. Presentation on Evaluating the Creation and Preservation Challenges of Photogrammetry-based 3D Models.

KULASEKARAN, S., TRELOGAN, J., ESTEVA, M. & JOHNSON, M. Metadata integration for an archaeology collection architecture. Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, 2014. Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, 53-63.

REINHARD, A. 2013. Publishing Archaeological Linked Open Data: From Steampunk to Sustainability [Online]. Available: http://dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/isaw/isaw-papers/7/reinhard/ [Accessed 23 7].

TOST, L. P. & CHAMPION, E. 2011. Evaluating Presence in Cultural Heritage Projects. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 18, 83-102.

WISE, A. & MILLER, P. 1997. WHY METADATA MATTERS IN ARCHAEOLOGY. Internet Archaeology, Online.

potential paper in Forum on Video Games and Archaeology

3D and game editors, design, digital heritage, game, virtual heritage, ,

Title: Serious Games and Virtual Heritage Have Let Archaeology Down

Wandering around museums or visiting art galleries and school fairs a relatively impartial observer might notice the paucity of interactive historical exhibitions. In particular there is a disconnect between serious games masquerading as entertainment and the aims and motivations of archaeology. Surely this is resolved by virtual heritage projects, interactive virtual learning environments? After all we have therapy games, flight simulators, online role-playing games, even games involving archaeological site inspections (Lara Croft:Tomb raider). Unfortunately we have few successful case studies that are shareable, robust, and clearly delivering learning outcomes.

Theoretical Issues for Game-based Virtual Heritage

3D and game editors, Book, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, heritage, ,

Another book chapter published

Theoretical Issues for Game-based Virtual Heritage

Abstract:

This paper critiques essential features in prominent theories of serious games, and compares them to interaction features of commercial computer games that could be used for history and heritage-based learning in order to develop heuristics that may help future the specific requirements of serious game design for interactive history and digital heritage.

Champion, E. (2015). Theoretical Issues for Game-based Virtual Heritage. In M. Ebner, K. Erenli, R. Malaka, J. Pirker & A. E. Walsh (Eds.), Immersive Education (Vol. 486, pp. 125-136): Springer International Publishing.

It gives the reader an idea of my upcoming book:

Critical Gaming: Interactive History and Virtual Heritage (Digital Research in the Arts and Humanities)

Out soon: My book “Critical Gaming: Interactive History & Virtual Heritage”

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

Review:

If you would like to review the book please check out this page for contact details: https://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=2253 …

Critical Gaming: Interactive History and Virtual Heritage

Purchase:

The book will be available via http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472422910

or Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Gaming-Interactive-Heritage-Humanities/dp/1472422929

This book explains how designing, playing and modifying computer games, and understanding the theory behind them, can strengthen the area of digital humanities. This book aims to help digital humanities scholars understand both the issues and also advantages of game design, as well as encouraging them to extend the field of computer game studies, particularly in their teaching and research in the field of virtual heritage.By looking at re-occurring issues in the design, playtesting and interface of serious games and game-based learning for cultural heritage and interactive history, this book highlights the importance of visualisation and self-learning in game studies and how this can intersect with digital humanities. It also asks whether such theoretical concepts can be applied to practical learning situations. It will be of particular interest to those who wish to investigate how games and virtual environments can be used in teaching and research to critique issues and topics in the humanities, particularly in virtual heritage and interactive history. Contents: Introduction; Digital humanities and the limits of text; Game-based learning and the digital humanities; Virtual reality; Game-based history and historical simulations; Virtual heritage and digital culture; Worlds, roles and rituals; Joysticks of death, violence and morality; Intelligent agents, drama and cinematic narrative; Biofeedback, space and place; Applying critical thinking and critical play; Index.

The Egyptian Oracle Project: Ancient Ceremony in Augmented Reality (Bloomsbury Egyptology)

3D and game editors, Book, digital heritage, Digital Humanities, heritage, , , ,

Strange, authors don’t have a copy yet, and it says the book will be available from July 30 but my library already has a copy. Anyway, I wrote an introductory chapter on virtual heritage and the other chapters will be of interest to Egyptologists, Classicists, AI researchers, puppeteers, and of course Virtual Heritage designers..

http://www.amazon.com/The-Egyptian-Oracle-Project-Bloomsbury/dp/1474234151

For more than 2,000 years, between 1500 BCE and 600 CE, the Egyptian processional oracle was one of the main points of contact between temple-based religion and the general population. In a public ceremony, a god would indicate its will or answer questions through the movements of a portable cult statue borne by priests or important members of the community.

The Egyptian Oracle Project is an interactive performance that adapts this ceremony to serve as the basis for a mixed-reality educational experience for children and young adults, using both virtual reality and live performance. The scene is set in a virtual Egyptian temple projected onto a wall. An oracle led by a high priest avatar (controlled by a live human puppeteer) is brought into the presence of a live audience, who act in the role of the Egyptian populace. Through the mediation of an actress, the audience interacts with the avatar, recreating the event.

The series of carefully focused essays in this book provides vital background to this path-breaking project in three sections. After a brief introduction to educational theatre and virtual reality, the first section describes the ancient ceremony and its development, along with cross-cultural connections. Then the development of the script and its performance in the context of mixed-reality and educational theatre are examined. The final set of essays describes the virtual temple setting in more detail and explores the wider implications of this project for virtual heritage.

Seeing Is Revealing: A Critical Discussion on Visualisation And The Digital Humanities

3D and game editors, Academic, Digital Humanities, Presentation, virtual heritage,

My talk for tomorrow’s dh2015.org conference at UWS, Sydney is entitled:
Seeing Is Revealing: A Critical Discussion on Visualisation And The Digital Humanities.
The presentation examines how

  1. More emphasis has been on scientific visualisation, on non-interactive calculation and presentation of quantifiable data but Digital Humanities Visualisation is not only about data, but can also be interactive. vague, questioning and rhetorical.
  2. Visualisation is not only pretty, (refer Baldwin, S. 2013. The Idiocy of the Digital Literary (and what does it have to do with digital humanities)? digital humanities quarterly (dhq) [Online], 7. Available: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/7/1/000155/000155.html [Accessed 14 March 2014]). It can help solve and not just communicate research problems.
  3. Visualisation has to overcome ocularcentrism as Virtual Reality reflects not only sighted reality but non-sighted reality, visualisation is more than just the visual (explain using cave paintings!)
  4. Game design is not typically part of Digital Humanities but it is an interesting vehicle for community feedback, cultural issues, critical reflection and medium-specific techniques (such as procedural rhetoric-see last post).
  5. I will discuss visualisation in terms of game engines for history and heritage, hybrid pano-tables, learning via inventories and maps, NPC driven narrative, indirect personalisation (biofeedback), and active speaker as embedded and embodied characters inside environments.
  6. There are huge issues, HCI, authenticity, developing scholarly arguments in collaboration, preservation, etc.)
  7. So if the above is not Digital Humanities what is it? It employs research in the traditional humanities, converts IT people to humanities research (sometimes), helps preserves and communicates cultural heritage and cultural significance through alterity, cultural constraints and counterfactual imaginings. History and heritage is not always literature! And the DH audience is not always literature-focused or interested in traditional forms of literacy.

Ideas on how to adapt Kinect camera tracking for 3D presentations in archaeology

3D and game editors, Academic, Biofeedback, Hand tracking, heritage, HIVE, , , ,

I did not mention all these in my 22 May presentation at Digital Heritage 3D conference in Aarhus (http://conferences.au.dk/digitalheritage/)

But here are some working notes for future development:

How Xbox Kinect camera tracking could change the simulated avatar:

  1. Avatars in the simulated world change their size clothing or inventories – they scale relative to typical sizes and shapes of the typical inhabitants, or scale is dependent on the scene or avatar character chosen.
  2. Avatars change to reflect people picking up things.
  3. Avatars role-play – different avatars see different things in the digital world.
  4. Narrator gestures affect the attention or behavior of the avatar.

How Xbox Kinect camera tracking could change the simulated world or digital objects in that world:

  1. Multiple players are needed to lift and examine objects.
  2. Objects move depending on the biofeedback of the audience or the presenter.
  3. Interfaces for Skype and Google hangout – remote audiences can select part of the screen and filter scenes or wire-frame the main model.
  4. Levels of authenticity and time layers can be controlled or are passively / indirectly affected by narrator motion or audience motion / volume / infrared output.

Ideas workpad

3D and game editors, game, , , , , ,

I am not even sure (given my current role) I am allowed to put in proposals for our internal strategic round but hey! Research ideation is fun and I should start seeking out NGOS and ICT companies on

  1. Environment: the full surround 2 person immersive environment developed with Paul Bourke of University of Western Australia (time to scope it back and provide scenarios and re-budget the original estimates)
  2. Mapping: the A5 device-sized hybrid 2D/3D mapping system prototype I had at in 2001(!) at the University of Melbourne
  3. Presentation tool: talk to Google or Microsoft about the semi-immersive and mimetic-friendly motion and gesture controlled 3D world/tele presentation device (I think it is a good PhD project)
  4. Lit survey: a survey of virtual heritage worlds, their format, data, and provenance info—where are they? What are they? Possibly a masters project
  5. ToolEnvironment: A sensor of things built into props for archaeological role playing or LARP (head controlled). Have the psychologist contact.
  6. Historic RPG: The cultural turing test (time to build a historical prototype!) Needs more historic scenarios than just Marco Polo, Vasco de Gama and Richard Burton (no not him, the explorer), Louis de Freycinet’s wife,
  7. Tool/App: Historic Shipwrecks and Augmented Reality
  8. Training: (English) Training materials for CHESS and for APA reusable game – could be Masters I guess or if I have time..what other interaction strategies work best with heritage artefacts and AR?
  9. Environment/Arch-gaming: Minecraft and Arduino (not http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/whats-on/exhibitions/gallipoli-in-minecraft but something else!) and Darth Vader’s skill Have the psychologist connection again.
  10. n.b. the Mauritius-Curtin connection to Ashmore is fascinating ((http://www.geographicus.com/blog/tag/antique-map/), time to re-explore cultural geography, interface design and gamic historic adventures

DiGRA 2015 in Germany 14-17 May 2015

3D and game editors, Conference, heritage, , , , ,

Looking forward to returning even if briefly to Europe, I will be presenting the below paper (which I just sent off, hopefully complete) for the proceedings of the 8th international conference of the Digital Games Research Association taking place May 14th-17th at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Title: Role-playing and Rituals For Heritage-Oriented Games Abstract: Roles and rituals are essential for creating, situating and maintaining cultural practices. Computer Role-Playing games (CRPGs) and virtual online worlds that appear to simulate different cultures are well known and highly popular. So it might appear that the roles and rituals of traditional cultures are easily ported to computer games. However, I contend that the meaning behind worlds, rituals and roles are not fully explored in these digital games and virtual worlds and that more work needs to be done to create more moving rituals, role enrichment and worldfulness. I will provide examples from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda, 2006, 2011) to reveal some of the difficulties in creating digitally simulated social and cultural worlds, but I will also suggest some design ideas that could improve them in terms of cultural presence and social presence.

What the internet of things can learn from Minecraft and Lemmings

3D and game editors, heritage,

Rough idea stage: A Minecraft of things with sensor data and heritage or urban datasets, to teach children system design with realtime data fed into the virtual world via minecraft!

Gigaom

Once we have a home full of connected devices do we really want to individually manage all of them? Mike Kuniavsky, a principal in the Innovation Services Group at PARC, explains in this weeks podcast how we’re going to have to think differently about programming devices for the internet of things. Devices will need to know what they contain and how those elements might contribute to a certain scenario in the home.

For example when you want to watch a movie, you shouldn’t have to program 6 different devices in your home to tell them what they should do when you toggle on your movie setting, your devices should have some sense of what they are capable of and how to enter a set mode. As he did in his chat in February at our San Francisco Internet of Things meetup, Kuniavsky, likened this device behavior to video games like…

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reviews of Critical Gaming book before it is even published

3D and game editors, Announcements, Book, Digital Humanities, heritage, publication, virtual heritage, , , , , , , ,

It was a very nice surprise to discover the 3 reviews on Critical Gaming: Interactive History and Virtual Heritage at
http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472422910
I tried for a more conversational style that sprang from simple ideas as starting points so I was very happy to hear from people that it  has helped them in their projects and grant applications-even if only as a primer.
I am indebted to the reviewers!
-Erik

Reviews: ‘If anyone doubts that games, gamification, and play do not provide a serious and essential path to creativity and knowledge-production about the past, then Erik Champion’s book will surely change their minds. The book is a must for teachers, historians, archaeologists, and museum and cultural heritage professionals interested in critically using games and virtual reality as tools for teaching and research.’
Ruth Tringham, University of California, Berkeley, USA

‘Champion’s newest work represents a treasure trove of ideas for both scholars and practitioners in the field of digital heritage. Digital media designers will find a plethora of design ideas while researchers will encounter as many useful evaluation suggestions, both with the goal of creating virtual environments that convey a sense of cultural presence and facilitate cultural learning.’
Natalie Underberg-Goode, University of Central Florida, USA

‘By emphasizing the new cultural role of serious games, game-based learning, and virtual heritage in making scholarly arguments, this book demonstrates the relevance of visualization, interaction and game design in a contemporary humanities discourse. It will be of great use to scholars and educators who want to include new digital methods in their research and courses while it will provide indispensable digital literacy, references, and case studies to 21st century students in humanities and heritage-related fields.’
Nicola Lercari, University of California, Merced, USA

Publishing in digital heritage and related areas

3D and game editors, game, Journal, virtual heritage, , , ,

Due to my current role I have to help grade journals, so as a bit of a test, I had a look at the h index and SJR value of journals roughly in my area (areas?) of research.I used SJR and Google Scholar metrics. They calculate h value differently (the latter has an h5 for 5 years rating) but it was interesting to compare. Individual conferences can score highly but are hard to compare to journals as they appear to be often rated individually rather than as a series. SIGGRAPH is one of the exceptions (Google, SCIMAGOJR) but compare to CHI (google, SCIMAGOJR?)

http://www.scimagojr.com/help.php

SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) indicator: It expresses the average number of weighted citations received in the selected year by the documents published in the selected journal in the three previous years, –i.e. weighted citations received in year X to documents published in the journal in years X-1, X-2 and X-3. See detailed description of SJR .

H Index: The h index expresses the journal’s number of articles (h) that have received at least h citations. It quantifies both journal scientific productivity and scientific impact and it is also applicable to scientists, countries, etc. (see H-index wikipedia definition).

TARGETED JOURNALSH-indexSJRGoogle tag h5
New Media and Society462.1445
Journal of Computer mediated communication641.9636
Cultural Geographies281.4618
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory271.0613
Critical Inquiry291.0217
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies760.9933
Media, Culture & Society320.9624
games and culture230.7521
Journal of Cultural Heritage290.6819
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction350.6225
Critical Studies in Media Communication250.6213
MIT Presence590.5518
Simulation & Gaming320.4525
International Journal of Heritage studies160.4214
International Journal of Heritage in the Digital Era160.426
International Journal of Architectural Computing40.4210
Virtual Reality240.4015
Space and Culture160.3813
Entertainment Computing (journal, conference)70.3510
Journal of Computing and Cultural Heritage80.32?
Digital Creativity80.2910
Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds320.2715
game studies130.19?
Internet Archaeology20.10?
CHI conference Computer Human Interaction78

3D MODELS YOU CAN DOWNLOAD

3D and game editors, heritage, infrastructure, , , ,

Sketchfab really is impressive! First are castles (since that was requested)

PS4 camera appears to work with Mac OS X

3D and game editors, tracking, Virtual Reality, , , , , , , , ,

As an alternative to Kinect One (which requires Windows 8) the PS4 eye camera has some interesting features/functions although it is lower res and does not have an Infra Red (IR) blaster..
And can cost $85 AUD or cheaper online or via JB hifi…

How does it compare to Microsoft’s Kinect One camera?
Review in 2013:http://au.ign.com/blogs/finalverdict/2013/11/02/xbox-one-vs-playstation-4-kinect-20-vs-playstation-4-camera
Review in 2014: http://www.techradar.com/au/news/gaming/consoles/ps4-vs-xbox-720-which-is-better-1127315/5#articleContent
A not so positive review: http://www.techradar.com/au/reviews/gaming/gaming-accessories/playstation-4-camera-1202008/review

One possible future use for PS4 eye camera, the VR Project Morpheus: http://www.techradar.com/au/reviews/gaming/project-morpheus-1235379/review

http://www.psdevwiki.com/ps4/PlayStation_4_Camera

Available functions

  • photo, video
  • voice commands (available as well with an earset with microphone)
  • depth calculation/imaging
  • pad, move, face, head and hand recognition/tracking
  • one of the cameras can be used for generating the video image, with the other used for motion tracking.

http://www.psdevwiki.com/ps4/Talk:PlayStation_4_Camera

Features (Could be used for eye tracking..)

  • automatic black level calibration (ABLC) support 2×2 binning
  • programmable controls for frame rate, mirror and flip, standard serial SCCB interface cropping and windowing
  • image quality controls: lens correction and defective pixel canceling two-lane MIPI/LVDS serial output interface
  • embedded 256 bits one-time programmable (OTP)
  • memory for part identification, etc.
  • supports output formats: 8/10/12-bit RAW RGB on-chip phase lock loop (PLL)(MIPI/LVDS)
  • supports horizontal and vertical sub-sampling programmable I/O drive capability
  • supports images sizes: 1280×800, 640×400, and 320×200
  • built-in 1.5V regulator for core
  • support alternate frame HDR / line HDR
  • fast mode switching

What can you do with it?
http://ps4eye.tumblr.com/
“Bigboss (@psxdev) has successfully streamed video data from the PS4 camera to OS X!”
Picture at https://twitter.com/psxdev/status/439787015606136833

Drivers for PS4
http://bigboss-eyetoy.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/ps4eyecam-released.html
Links to https://github.com/bigboss-ps3dev/PS4EYECam/
“It is the first public driver for PlayStation 4 Camera licensed under gpl.”

Historical
PS3Eye for Mac: http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/

Kinect SDK 2 FINGER TRACKING (etc) for Desktops & Large Screens (VR)

3D and game editors, Architecture, Biofeedback, design, Finger Tracking, Hand tracking, HIVE, , , , , , , ,

We are trying to create some applications/extensions that allow people to interact naturally with 3D built environments on a desktop by pointing at or walking up to objects in the digital environment:

or a large surround screen (figure below is of the Curtin HIVE):

using a Kinect (SDK 1 or 2) for tracking. Ideally we will be able to:

  1. Green screen narrator into a 3D environment (background removal).
  2. Control an avatar in the virtual environment using speaker’s gestures.
  3. Trigger slides and movies inside a UNITY environment via speaker finger-pointing Ideally the speaker could also change the chronology of built scene with gestures (or voice), could alter components or aspects of buildings, move or replace parts or components of the environment. Possibly also use Leap SDK (improved).
  4. Better employ the curved screen so that participants can communicate with each other.

We can have a virtual/tracked hand point to objects creating an interactive slide presentation to the side of the Unity environment. As objects are pointed at information appears in a camera window/pane next to the 3D digital environment, or, these info windows are triggered on approach.

A commercial solution to Kinect tracking for use inside Unity environments is http://zigfu.com/ but they only appear to be working with SDK 1. Which is a bit of a problem, to rephrase:

Problem: All solutions seem to be Kinect SDK 1 and SDK 2 only appears to work on Windows 8. We use Windows 7 and Mac OS X (10.10.1).

So if anyone can help me please reply/email or comment on this post.

And for those doing similar things, here are some links I found on creating Kinect-tracked environments:

KINECT SDK 1
Kinect with MS-SDK is a set of Kinect examples, utilizing three major scripts and test models. It demonstrates how to use Kinect-controlled avatars or Kinect-detected gestures in your own Unity projects. This asset uses the Kinect SDK/Runtime provided by Microsoft. URL: http://rfilkov.com/2013/12/16/kinect-with-ms-sdk/
And here is “one more thing”: A great Unity-package for designers and developers using Playmaker, created by my friend Jonathan O’Duffy from HitLab Australia and his team of talented students. It contains many ready-to-use Playmaker actions for Kinect and a lot of example scenes. The package integrates seamlessly with ‘Kinect with MS-SDK’ and ‘KinectExtras with MsSDK’-packages.

NB
KinectExtras for Kinect v2 is part of the “Kinect v2 with MS-SDK“. This package here and “Kinect with MS-SDK” are for Kinect v1 only.

BACKGROUND REMOVAL (leaves just player)
rfilkov.wordpress.com/2013/12/17/kinectextras-with-mssdk/

FINGER TRACKING (Not good on current Kinect for various reasons)

  1. http://www.ar-tracking.com/products/interaction-devices/fingertracking/
  2. Not sure if SDK 1 but FingerTracker is a Processing library that does real-time finger-tracking from depth images: http://makematics.com/code/FingerTracker/
  3. Finger tracking for interaction in augmented environments: Finger tracking for interaction in augmented environments OR https://www.ims.tuwien.ac.at/publications/tr-1882-00e.pdf by K Dorfmüller-Ulhaas – a finger tracker that allows gestural interaction and is sim- ple, cheap, fast … is based on a marked glove, a stereoscopic tracking system and a kinematic 3-d …
  4. Video of “Finger tracking with Kinect SDK” see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrUW-Z3fHkk
  5. Finger tracking using Java http://www.java2s.com/Open-Source/CSharp_Free_Code/Xbox/Download_Finger_Tracking_with_Kinect_SDK_for_XBOX.htm
  6. Microsoft can do it: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/08/kinect-for-windows-finger-tracking/ Might need to contact them though for info

HAND TRACKING FOR USE WITH AN OCULUS RIFT
http://nimblevr.com/ For use with rift
Download nimble VR http://nimblevr.com/download.html Win 8 required but has mac binaries

February 2014 talks in California

3D and game editors, Announcements, Architecture, Biofeedback, Conference, game, virtual heritage, visualisation, , , , ,

Update: http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/arf.html?event_ID=74777&date=2014-02-11

Schedule of my visit to the San Francisco Bay Area:

1) Monday 10 February, 2014. 4pm-6.00pm. Kroeber Hall, Gifford Room.

Title: What is Virtual Heritage?

Virtual heritage could be viewed as a hybrid marriage of Virtual Reality and cultural heritage. Stone and Ojika (2000) defined it as

“[It is]…the use of computer-based interactive technologies to record, preserve, or recreate artifacts, sites and actors of historic, artistic, religious, and cultural significance and to deliver the results openly to a global audience in such a way as to provide formative educational experiences through electronic manipulations of time and space.”

The above is an interesting definition but I wish to modify it slightly, for it does not explicitly cover the preservation, communication and dissemination of beliefs, rituals, and other cultural behaviours and activities. We also need to consider authenticity of reproduction, scholastic rigor, and sensitivity to the needs of both audience and to the needs of the shareholders of the original and remaining content. No doubt this is due to the many issues in the presentation of culture. One is the definition of culture itself, the second issue is to understand how culture is transmitted, and the third is how to transmit the local situated cultural knowledge to people from another culture. In the case of virtual heritage, a fourth also arises, exactly how could this specific cultural knowledge be transmitted digitally?

Although I personally believe that fundamental issues of culture, place and inhabitation are still to be successfully addressed (Champion, 2014); computer games offer interesting opportunities to the audience, designer, and critic. They are no longer single player, shallow interfaces. They are turning into multivalent, multi-dimensional, user-directed collaborative virtual worlds. Commercial games are often bundled with world creation technology and network capability that is threatening to overtake the creation and presentation displays of expensive and complex specialist VR systems. In this talk I will not suggest that computer games are revolutionary, only that they are potentially changing the way we think, act, communicate, and feel.

 References

Stone, Robert J., & Takeo, Ojika. (2000). Virtual Heritage: What Next? . Multimedia, IEEE, 7(2), 73–74.

Champion, E. (2014). History and Heritage in Virtual Worlds. In M. Grimshaw (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2) Tuesday 11 February 10.30-12.30pm. 2224 Piedmont Avenue, MACTiA lab (room 12)

Informal Workshop/Brainstorm/Discussion with Dr. Erik Champion: Games – serious or otherwise – for and about archaeology and cultural heritage

Please feel free to drop in to this workshop and brainstorming session where archaeologists with Erik Champion will work through some ideas and plans for the design of computer games that are based in data of archaeological research and cultural heritage management and the interpretations of the past.

Starting point: Champion, Erik (2011) Playing with the Past. Springer, London.

3)Wednesday 12 February, 2014. 12noon-1pm. Archaeological Research Facility Lunchtime series: 2251 Building, Room 101.

Title: Heritage Via Games and Game Mods

In this informal talk, I will discuss classroom experiences (both good and bad) gleaned from teaching game design, especially work by students to develop serious games using historical events or mythological happenings.

My central argument is that despite apparent initial barriers, both students and teachers (and academics in general) can learn from the actual process of game design, and from watching people play. Theorists learn about the entangled issues of game design, the politics of user testing, and the designer fallacy (I designed the game, I know how best to experience it, if the audience can’t work it out there is something wrong with them, not the design). Students, in turn, can begin to understand (perhaps) how theory, good theory, can help open eyes, inspire new design and turn description into prescription. There are of course even more dilemmas and difficulties for visualizing and interacting with history and with heritage, and with moving from easily accessible commercial games and open source games, to larger Virtual Reality centres, planetariums and museums, but it has been done, with some significant successes.

This talk will touch on and move past projects mentioned in the following and free to download book: Champion, Erik (Ed.). (2012). Game Mods: Design, Theory and Criticism. Pittsburgh: ETC Press. URL: http://press.etc.cmu.edu/content/game-mods

Off-campus

4) Thursday 13 February, 2014. 12noon. Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation (MOVES) Institute, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey.

TITLE:  Cultural Heritage and Surround Displays, VR and Games for the Humanities OR Immersive Digital Humanities: When The Motion Tracker is Mightier Than The Pen

How are scholars using surround displays, stereographics, gaming technologies and new peripherals to disseminate new ways of viewing, interacting with, and understanding humanities content, and in particular, cultural heritage? Which issues in cultural heritage and interacting with historical content need to be kept in mind by VR experts when working with humanities scholars? And are there key concepts and research developments in the VR field that humanities scholars should be more aware of? Or are the fields of interaction design and (digital) humanities converging?

NB Public talk but guests have to be pre-approved as it is at the Naval Postgraduate School.