Context-Aware Games for Education and Wellbeing

Teemu H. Laine

UbiLi fe lab, Dept. of Information and Computer Engineering

Ajou University

teemu@ubil ife.net (www.ubil i fe.net)

Mission: foster research on ubiquitous (context-aware) technologies, applications and services in the fields of education and wellbeing

Focus: context-aware platforms, applications and games

Approach: combine ubiquitous and interactive technologies to connect virtual world to the real world

Team: international experts from various fields

Prof. Teemu Laine (context-awareness, educational technology, e-wellbeing, games)

Prof. Haejung Suk (digital media, 3D modeling, animation)

Prof. Adil Khan (human activity recognition, machine learning)

Jungryul Seo, PhD student (context-awareness, human activity recognition)

+ more at www.ubilife.net

Joonas Westlin, Master Student (context-awareness, augmented reality)

Context-awareness● Detecting the user’s situation (context): where, what, when, with whom, etc.

● Providing context-sensitive content to the user (usually via a mobile device).

● Context data are utilized in applications which connect to the real world objects.

Reality vs Virtuality

Based on Milgram’s virtuality continuum

Why games?● Games are known to be engaging and motivating

Game

AdvancementAutonomyChallenge

Clear goals

Competition

Competence

ConcentrationControl

CooperationCuriosity

Customization

Discovery

Escapism

Fantasy

Feedback

Immersion

Mechanics

Mystery

Player skills

RecognitionRelatedness

Relationship Role-playing

Rules/goalsSensory stimuli

Social interaction

Socializing

Teamwork

Why games?● Appropriately balanced games are known to help the player enter the flow

“Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment.”

The flow theory by Csikszentmihalyi

Why exercise?

Future trends for the overweight for several post-industrial countries (OECD). (http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/obesityandtheeconomicsofpreventionfitnotfat-koreakeyfacts.htm)

Why exercise?

* Children, Adolescents, and the Media. American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013.** Zero to Eight – Children’s media use in America. Common Sense Media, 2013.*** Obesity and overweight – Fact sheet no 311. World Health Organization, 2012.

● Television: 4 hours per day*● Computer: 1.5h per day*● Mobile (SMS): 3364 messages / month (teenagers)*● Media time of 5-8 year olds: 2:21 per day**● More than 40 million overweight children in 2010***

What is exergaming?● A game genre that involves physical exercise.

● The goal: make physical exercise more fun

● Exergame typically tracks the player's movement or other body parameters (e.g., heart rate)

● Benefits: Energy expenditure, weight loss, improved fitness through increased heart rate, improved stamina and recovery, improved motor skills, coordination and balance, social interaction, improved self-esteem, increased motivation and enjoyment, academic performance, visual-spatial skills, attention (Staiano & Calvert, 2011)

Calory Battle AR● Location-based treasure hunt exergame. Treasures are various challenges to be

solved.

● GPS for location detection (Google Maps API).

● Augmented Reality to embed virtual objects in the physical world (Vuforia SDK).

● Time limits to encourage running.

Calory Battle AR: The Story● The Dews (good guys)

– Need our sweat to survive.

– Cast spells on us that make our bodies healthier and our minds brighter.

● The Caloroids (bad guys)

– Have deployed calory bombs or other game challenges around the game area which, when exploded, makes us lazy and unhealthy.

● The Player

– Helps the Dews to get rid of the calory bombs and other challenges.

Map editor (web-based)

Running Othello● Distributed pervasive exergame version of the Othello (Reversi) board game.

● Running Othello is played outside on a field of any size. Each cell has an NFC tag.

● Player makes a move by reading a tags with a smartphone.

● No turns – the faster the better.

● A randomized mission must be completed before a cell is conquered.

● Distributed gameplay over the internet.

Laine, T.H. & Islas Sedano, C. (2015). Distributed Pervasive Worlds: The Case of Exergames, Accepted to Educational Technology & Society special issue “Overcoming the technological hurdles facing virtual worlds in education: the road to widespread deployment”.

VS

SciFest, Joensuu Ajou University

ScienceSpots AR● Children's interest in science has been declining* because of:

– Lack of relevance to the real world

– Lack of motivation● Context-awareness and augmented reality can solve the real world

relevance problem.

● Games can solve the motivation problem.

● ScienceSpots AR: a platform for story-based context-aware games for science learning.

*Osborne et al. “Attitudes towards science: A review of the literature and its implications,” Int. J. Sci. Educ., vol. 25, no. 9, pp. 1049–1079, Sep. 2003.*C. Porter and J. Parvin, “Learning to Love Science: Harnessing children’s scientific imagination,” 2008.

Concept

Key features● Customizable stories created by educators and learners with a game

design tool.

● Inventory of reusable assets such as task templates, game characters, and media files.

● Augmented reality content visualization and interaction.

● Real-time usage statistics for educators (Learning Process Monitor).

● Context-awareness through ManySense middleware.

● Multiplayer tasks through the game server.

● Portable across contexts.

Architecture

Leometry● First prototype game for the ScienceSpots AR

platform.

● Storytelling for immersion.

● The player solves geometry challenges at real-world spots.

● Colorful UI to attract young players.

● Augmented reality features.

● Evaluated at the SciFest 2014 festival and at a Korean elementary school during spring 2014.

● Created in collaboration with University of Eastern Finland & Haaga-Helia UAS.

Game content● Geometry challenges are based

on the Van Hiele levels for geometry education.

● A story of mother leopard and her cub who escape from poachers with help of a dung beetle.

● Story characters modeled after photographies of African animals.

Game play video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J2U0C-AL2o

Game story structure

Augmented reality features ● The game map

– Connected to the floor plan of the SciFest 2014 festival.

– Challenges appear as virtual objects floating on top of the physical map.

● The boss challenge

– the player disarms AR traps set by the poachers.

– Similar to defusing bombs in Calory Battle AR.

Q&A

Thank you!

Feel free to contact later at any time: teemu@ubilife.net, www.ubilife.net

Videos

● Calory Battle AR: UI & Game play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6-fxiNpkwE

● Calory Battle AR: Test with Korean elementary school children https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1N_C2GIrqc

● Calory Battle AR: Unity 3D versionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNkDP2CRCHs

● Leometry: game playhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f-0FUIo7Vc

● Running Othello: playershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOFzHEFv_d4

Related articles● Calory Battle AR

– Laine, T.H. & Suk, H.J. (2015). Designing mobile augmented reality exergames, Accepted to Games & Culture.

– Westlin, J. and Laine, T.H. (2014). Short paper: Calory Battle AR: An Extensible Mobile Augmented Reality Exergame Platform. Proceedings of the IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things, Seoul, Korea.

– Kim, S.L., Laine, T.H. Suk. H.J., Westlin, J., Kang, J.H. and Jung, J.M. (2014). Using Unity 3D to Facilitate Mobile Augmented Reality Game Development. Proceedings of the IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things, Seoul, Korea.

● Running Othello

– Laine, T.H. & Islas Sedano, C. (2015). Distributed Pervasive Worlds: The Case of Exergames, Accepted to Educational Technology & Society.

● Leometry / ScienceSpots AR

– Article submitted to IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies

More publications: http://www.ubilife.net/?page_id=108