Scenario Testing and Results

We presented our use-case and user scenarios (to be posted soon!) to three classmates, all of whom also use the North Avenue Apartment space, as well as one Georgia Tech alum (familiar with the space) and one Emory alum (not familiar with the space).

In the first session (with three classmates), we showed the user scenario first, followed by the use-case. What we found with this is that our user scenario does not clearly depict the nature of the game without further explanation (given in the use-case). Once we played the use-case scenario, many of our participants initial questions were answered. In the second and third sessions, we reversed this order and saw that the number of questions about actual gameplay lessened.

Even after the reversing of video order, we still had several questions about gameplay. This let us know that we need to add additional explanations to both the use-case and the user scenario. The features in question (stated below) will be more clearly explained in the refined versions of our use-case and user scenario videos via additional voiceovers and "screenshots." The user scenario specifically will need several voiceovers to explain the actions Jessie (the persona in the scenario) performs, as well as additional character development to explain why she would play the game at all. Participants also mentioned that parts our use-case were "very informative" (upon further discussion, a little too informative), so we may be able to cut down some of the content from the use-case in order to have time to clarify some of the other features not already mentioned.

Questions about Gameplay:

• How do you use power-ups?
• How do you enter your name on the high score board?
• What happens if a person gets in the way?
• Do you have to stand still?
• What view can you see (full building, partial, etc)?
• How do the timers work?

We also received several valuable suggestions to improve the game interaction overall. The general concern among all participants is that the game is not interactive enough, and that the player may feel disconnected from the game especially since there is no player representation in the game. Another concern was that a player may feel silly standing in the courtyard playing this game by themselves. Several of our participants were interested in a multi-player mode which might alleviate this uneasiness. Some suggestions for improvement from our participants as well as ideas we came up with based on the feedback are listed below.

Suggestions / Ideas:

• Represent player as a helicopter or another monster
• Have King Kong throw bananas at you (you must 'duck' to miss)
• Drop power-ups from planes
• Add more explosions
• Make multi-player where each player is a different monster

The feedback from these sessions has been very valuable in helping us see where our strengths and weaknesses lie in this design concept. While we will be focusing on refining our use case and user scenarios we also hope to be able to further develop a few of the suggestions from our participants for our final design presentation.

-Misha

User Interface Design Sketches

These sketches detail our planned User Interface design for the iPhone application of the game, along with notes and ideas about features for the game.


(click to enlarge)


(click to enlarge)

-Misha

Research Methods

Behavioral Mapping

We observed people’s movements walking around the North Avenue Courtyard. We recorded twenty different people’s paths. Image 1 contains a compilation of all twenty paths. Image 2 contains each path separated by layer, so you can see the path individually.

What paths are used most?
The paths that are most used generally follow along the sidewalks around the courtyard starting from the door of a building towards the bus stop. There are two, well worn paths in the grass of the courtyard from the North Ave East (NAE) front door towards the bus stop or towards the North Ave South (NAS) front door. Most of the paths intersect at the balcony before the bus stops. Some people also came from the direction of the North Ave North and West buildings.

What spots are vacant or unused?
The most vacant, unused spots are the courtyard itself. Aside from the worn down grass where people cut through the courtyard, most of the courtyard remains untouched. In the satellite image, you can see vaguely where grass has been worn away from continual use.

Where do people come together in groups?
In Image 3, I recorded any location where a congregation of more than two people occurred. At the bus stops, most groups of people would congregate to wait for the bus or for a ride from a friend picking them up. Congregations also occurred by the front doors of NAE and NAS. This was usually due to people either waiting to be let into the building by their friends or people sitting outside to smoke together.

Where might you put the marker?
A marker would best be placed close to the balcony overlooking the bus stops. At this balcony, people from all directions (various sidewalks and courtyard path), intersect as they decide whether to take the red bus or the blue bus. By placing a marker on the courtyard close to the balcony and the courtyard path, it would attract people’s attention as they walk by while also not obstructing traffic. For those who are interested enough in the marker, it is not a far walk from the sidewalk to reach the marker.

How do you expect people to navigate your installation?
The marker placed in the courtyard would simply be used to notify people of where to stand for the Catch King Kong game. The North Avenue East and South buildings always remain static, so the buildings themselves could be used as markers for tracking the AR technology. We could also construct models of the two buildings, so the objects in the game know how to interact with them. By using markers in the courtyard to limit users’ positions to a static location, it will make it easier for the tracking technology to know exactly where the user is in relation to the buildings.

Image 1


Image 2 (Animated .gif)


Image 3




Error Analysis of Augmented Reality

Problems:

1. Marker is not read correctly
The main reason that a marker is not read correctly is due to location. That is to say, if the user of the AR device is standing 100 feet away from a marker that is painted on the ground the marker is going to be distorted from his point of view. As he gets closer to the marker it will gradually become less and less distorted, restricting his use of the marker to a general vicinity around the marker. This can be circumvented by placing the marker up higher, such as in the air, but still the idea of being restricted to using a marker when you are relatively close to it will prove a problem for anyone trying to use a large space in their AR project.

2. Marker falls out of view / screen goes blank
There is currently not a large integration of GPS, compass, and marker capabilities. By using all three together triangulation has the possibility to become much more accurate. If somebody was to hold their AR device towards a marker on the side of a 10 story building, the software should be able to triangulate their exact location via the viewing angle and relative size of the marker. By also incorporating the compass technology all the information about the user's exact location should be able to be programmed at pinpoint accuracy. Once the location of a person is determined, too, then he should be able to move the marker out of his AR device's viewing window and still have things display (via the use of the compass). Currently the problem seems to reside in the fact that programmers are relying on either markers or a combination of GPS and compass instead of integrating all three technologies together or using only markers in tandem with compass capabilities.

3. Rendering software does not work fast enough to keep up with movement
This problem is derived primarily from the programming standpoint as the limitations of any given environment can and should be taken into account when producing a piece of AR software. As we have seen in class with the power AR piece the model that pops up when the marker is read has so much processing going on that it cannot display fluidly, especially if the user moves the marker and angles it differently. The simple fix to this problem is to keep in mind the processing capabilities that the environment a program is programmed in and proceed accordingly.

4. General coding errors
As there always seems to be with any sort of computational software, bugs and errors abound. This is more a problem with all computing instead of just with AR, but taking it into account seems reasonable.

5. Information displayed on screen does not seem to line up with real world very well
When the real world changes the program must change as well to reflect it. If it does not then the information displayed on the AR device may not flow as fluidly as it previously did. For instance if somebody is using a building's model in their AR program and they do not account for a new construction project that creates a new atrium on the side of the building, their virtual model and the real world model no longer match. Thus any interaction that the user may have with that real space in the virtual world will not seem as fluid as it would if the project was taken into account. In addition, as can be seen in many youtube videos, actual buildings can be used as markers. These markers signal the software to load a virtual model of the building. If the virtual model is not made to scale or is made poorly then obstructions of view in the virtual world may seem out of place or not lined up correctly.

6. Inaccuracy of GPS and compass functions
The accuracy of GPS functions in smartphones is currently relatively accurate but is not accurate enough to suit the needs of AR. They currently can triangulate a user's position to some area around a block in size. When there are so many different interactions that are possible within that block alone, just knowing that the user is standing within it is insufficient. Also, until recently the compass functions and altimeter functions of smartphones could get two cardinal directions confused. If a user was holding his phone facing directly north the software knew that he was either facing directly north OR directly south instead of knowing exactly where he was facing. Although there is now technology that knows exactly where the user is facing it is still not widespread in everyday cell phones.

7. Public gesture of holding up an AR device in front of you
Holding up a cellphone in public closely resembles the act of taking a picture in public. In fact many people hold up their cellphones in public to TAKE a picture. This action results in those around changing their actions to suit yours (or not changing them and running the risk of upsetting you). People will generally try to avoid walking directly in front of somebody with their camera or phone held up directly in front of them. Should another common use of holding a cellphone up in front of you become AR use that does not require people to avoid your line of sight, camera users may cry in dismay. The confusion that could result from a large amount of people using AR on the streets on a regular basis may be hindering towards society and pedestrians.

8. Holding a device directly in front of you is not a comfortable position
This one is pretty straight-forward. Holding a device directly in front of you at arm's length is not a comfortable position. After a while it may even strain muscles. If holding a device directly in front of you is a requirement of this AR technology, it is doubtful that many people will use it for extended periods of time.


Activity Analysis

List or represent in detail all tasks, actions, objects, performers, and interactions involved in the process of interacting with your installation. Based on this list, identify the components that you need to design in relationship to your concept.

Performers:
The Player[s): people will interact with our installation on a one-on-one basis. Though multiple people may play at the same time, their interaction with each other will be solely on a 'scoreboard' basis. Our players will be primarily Georgia Tech undergraduate North Avenue Apartment residents from the ages of 18-24.

Objects:
- iPhone: the medium through which we will display our AR project; the iPhone has touch screen, GPS and compass capabilities.
- information plaques: these will be placed at strategic points (based on behavioral analysis) in the North Avenue courtyards
- markers/buildings: we will be using the North Avenue Apartments as our “markers” and using virtual building models as a frame to form the character animations

Tasks/Actions/Interactions:
- The player must first download the iPhone application to their phone. This will be done via accessing the iTunes store on either the computer or phone.
- Players may begin the game from any point within North Avenue, but the information plaques will hold information on where the best vantage points to play are.
- Once the user selects the iPhone application on their phone, the game display will instruct the user to move forwards/backwards/etc in order to get one of the buildings into frame.
- The user must have a building marker in frame in order to begin the game.
- The player must choose from several game modes (possible modes include Quick Game, Easy/Medium/Hard Time Mode or Easy/Medium/Hard Item Mode) and also must choose their opponent (ex. King Kong, Godzilla, etc).
- Once the player is positioned and has chosen their game mode, they will press ‘Begin’ to start the game.
- The opponent will begin to move about the North Avenue Apartment buildings. The player must keep the opponent on the screen.
- The timer will start when the player presses begin, and pause every time the creature goes off-screen.
- If in Item Mode, the player may also see various items (slow down, plus size, etc icons) in the windows of the apartments. The player can grab these items by touching them on their screen.
- The player may then use the items by selecting the item at the bottom of their screen and then touching the opponent on the screen.
- Once the game has ended (differently based on different modes) the player may choose to upload their score to the general scoreboard or keep it for their personal records on the iPhone application.

Components (to be designed):
- iPhone application (UI design and game modes)
- 3D opponent models w/ animation
- 3D virtual building models (match w/ building markers)
- information plaques/signs

Research Conclusions

The behavioral mapping of the space gave our group a good sense of where to place informational plaques/flyers such that potential players may encounter them and decide to download the game. It also let us know which areas are out of the way of public traffic, which are good playing areas. Information plaques/flyers would be placed around the busy areas and indicate places that would be ‘vantage points’ for playing the game.

Error analysis led us to look into alternative technology choices for our game. As we aim to use the entire building, and players would be quite a distance away, the simple black & white marker squares were ruled out as an option. We are using a combination of new technologies including 3D models and the new compass feature of the iPhone to bypass some of the possible errors we encountered in our research. In addition, we encountered the possible problem of holding the iPhone out in front of you. While we cannot completely eliminate this feature, by putting the ‘play space’ in a less public area it makes it less awkward for users and by having the ability to pause game play or play a ‘quick’ game we can help lessen the risk of players arms getting tired.

Finally, our activity analysis led to the further development of the actual game play. During the analysis, we were forced to decide on specific features that we want the game to include and we came up with several new features for the game including power-ups and game modes. This shaped the user interface design sketches for our use case scenario seen above. The activity analysis also played a part in deciding the technology that we would use (discussed above as well).

Our Team!

from left to right: Chris, Misha and Christine

Three Scenarios

Here are our three scenarios:

Scenario 1: Lights Out!

Shelly is meeting her friend Bobby at his apartment complex; North Avenue South. This is not something that is entirely easy for Shelly to accomplish, as Georgia Tech has put somewhere between five and ten security check points between the outside of North Avenue and Bobby's apartment. Upon arriving to the complex another Georgia Tech student buzzes her into the front gate. Now that Shelly has made it to the courtyard she can find no one to let her in to North Avenue south. She calls Bobby up and he tells her he is going to take a shower and get dressed before he comes out to see her. He abruptly hangs up and a scowl immediately pops on to Shelly's face. She doesn't want to be waiting in the North Avenue courtyard for twenty minutes while Bobby gets ready. This is ridiculous. All of a sudden she remembers the game that she downloaded onto her iPhone earlier that day: Lights Out! This wasn't just any replication of lights out though, this is an augmented reality port of the Lights Out! game. Shelly opens the application and it prompts her to find the marker on the North Avenue East building. Confused, Shelly looks over towards the building to see a large geometric pattern painted on to the center of the building's wall. She raises her camera so that the view captures all of the building and the program goes to work. It first determines how far away Shelly is from the building and then determines which room lights are on and off. Upon compiling all of this information, the game begins and Shelly happily taps away at her iPhone screen, turning lights on and off in both succession and frustration. North Avenue East has a lot of windows, and so the game is taking a while. After nearly fifteen minutes, Shelly manages to get all of the lights except three in the bottom right corner to turn off. She taps the middle of those three and all of them turn off. The game excitedly exclaims that she has won! Shelly jumps for joy just as Bobby makes his way out of the North Avenue South doors. Shelly says her thanks for the game existing, as that would have been a terribly boring fifteen minutes. She and Bobby walk off into the sunset, hand in hand.

Scenario 2: King Kong Game

Jessie is supposed to go over to her friend Jennifer’s apartment at North Avenue Apartments. After getting off the bus, while waiting for Jennifer, she manages to sneak through the front gate. While waiting in front of North Avenue East, she pulls out her iPhone and directs it towards North Avenue South. She opens the Catch King Kong application, and on the screen, King Kong appears hanging from the roof ledge. He begins to scale the walls of the apartment, jumping from window to window. Jessie tries to follow his path with her phone screen. Alas, he is too fast for her, and he jumps up towards the roof. A noise beeps as a counter counts down to 5. Frantically, Jessie tries to search for him through her phone screen, but she has run out of time. King Kong escaped her grasp. As she prepares to play another round, selecting Frogger, Jennifer opens the door to let her in. Next time…

Scenario 3: Choose Your Own Destruction

Robbie is a 3rd year Architect student at Georgia Tech. He just found out that he failed his Physics test and his RA has ordered a mandatory meeting about a noise problem he isn’t part of. In short, he’s had a really awful day and is in a terrible mood. He sees a bulletin posted by North Avenue, where he lives, which talks about a new stress-relieving game for the apartments. He goes to the app store on his iPhone and downloads the application. He points it to the North Ave East building he lives in and proceeds to destroy his RA’s room, then the rest of the building. He chuckles and takes a picture to post on Facebook, then walks up to the meeting slightly relieved.

15 Concept Ideas

Here are our groups 15 concept ideas:

Concept 1: Reflective Tree



This concept revolves around the idea that North Avenue residents would partake in a collective activity. Every day students that live in North Avenue would have the opportunity to log on to a specific website and rate how they are feeling that day on a scale from 1-10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. At the end of each day the overall average of everybody in North Avenue's mood would be computed. These scores would all be factored in to the “reflective tree.” The reflective tree is an augmented reality three-dimensional model. A marker is placed in the North Avenue courtyard that people can look at using their smartphones equipped with the correct software. When the marker is recognized, a tree grows from the marker on the user's smartphone. On the first of the month the tree is only a stump. If on that first day the average mood of everybody in North Avenue is an 8.5, the next foot tall segment of the tree would be colored almost completely green. If the subsequent day the average mood was 1.5 the next segment of the tree would be colored almost completely red. And so the process continues throughout the whole month, building a tree whose layers are representative of the feelings of the North Avenue residents. At the end of the month the tree collapses and a new stump sprouts up.

Concept 2: Who is studying what?



This concept has a database backend that has a frontend on a website accessible by all Georgia Tech students residing in North Avenue. The purpose of the website is to be a forum for people to post when and where they will be studying what. In doing so, others can log on and see if there are any others studying the material that he or she needs to study that night. While the frontend on the website would be sufficient to display the given material, if the material was displayed at the front of the North Avenue courtyard, chances are that a lot more people would see what it. This concept is thus an AR bulletin board that is situated right above the turn-around in the North Avenue courtyard. People that are returning from class only have to pop out their smart phones and view the marker that is on the ground for a bulletin board listing all the people studying in North Avenue that night to appear. They can then choose to study with others instead of alone.

Concept 3: Lights Out



This concept is an AR take on the popular game “Lights Out!” Instead of using a platform for playing the lights out game, though, it takes on a more real feeling by taking over the windows of a given North Avenue building. A user can view the North Avenue building with their smart phone and the marker on the side of the building will tell the smart phone how to position the game. The software also reads each and every window that can be seen in the phone's view and detects whether or not the lights in each room are on or off. Once this information is compiled, the game starts. The player clicks on a light that is on to turn it off, but in doing so switches the statuses of all cardinally adjacent windows from off to on or from on to off. The objective is to turn all of the lights off, but it is a difficult game to master as every time the user plays different lights will be on and off and the same strategy won't necessarily work twice.

Concept 4: Dress-up Statues



This is a simple concept. Once more there is a website connected to a database backend from which the AR software reads. There are a number of statues around the North Avenue courtyard. Students living in the North Avenue courtyard can vote every day on how they want each statue to dress. Any time that a user uses his or her phone to view a given statue the most voted for clothing will appear on the statue.

Concept 5: Scheduler



This concept is simple as well. It is similar to the idea of the “who is studying what and where” concept detailed earlier, but it takes on a different form. The bulletin board is in the same location but the information that it displays is different. Instead of showing who is studying what and where the bulletin board shows unique information for each person that looks on it. Based on what the Georgia Tech login name is that is associated with a given phone, the scheduler compiles all the necessary info that a student may need to know within the immediate future. Some of this information includes: assignments that are due today, class schedule, group meeting schedules, and TA office hours. By displaying all of this information in a centralized location people may utilize TA office hours and keep better track of what they should be doing and when.

Concept 6: Window Event Markers



A marker would be placed under each window of the North Avenue apartments (facing the courtyard). Students would then be able to go online and list events/activities that they wanted to invite other students to (for example, a party or a study group). By using the iPhone, students would be able to point to the markers at the apartments and based on the events happening a display would show up with an option for more information on the event.

Concept 7: North Avenue Destruction

This idea is based off the desktop destruction program, a stress reliever game made for computers. Students would be able to point their iPhone at the North Avenue apartment buildings and choose their method of destruction. The building would have several markers that would help the iPhone determine what the student would like to destroy. Weapons might include a flamethrower, machine gun, rocket launcher, and a wrecking ball among others. When students complete their destruction they can save pictures and post them to Facebook or other places on the web for all to see. We feel that as Georgia Tech can be a very stressful environment this would be a fun way for students to let out their frustration.

Concept 8:Sculpture Markers



The idea of this concept would be to create huge sculpture markers to place in the North Avenue courtyard. This piece would be solely artistic in purpose. The sculptures would morph and move as students looked at them through their iPhones, displaying student work (from art students around the country) with an option for additional information on the artists. Students could post comments for the artists and others to read. The sculptures would still have artistic value even for those without iPhones, thus adding to the environment. It would be a way for students to connect and also for new artists to receive feedback and constructive criticism on their work.

Concept 9: Marker Movie Screen



For this concept, a huge marker would be placed in the middle of the North Avenue apartment courtyard. There would be a movie of the week (notifications would be posted in the dorms to inform students what movie would be showing) and students would be able to pick the movie up from their windows in the apartment buildings. They could start and stop the movie as they pleased, but would only be allowed to view it during the week that it was playing. This would give students a common topic of conversation and provide a unique viewing experience.


Concept 10: Sticker Markers



Students would be provided stickers (of varying shapes and sizes that would confine the animations) that hold the geometric patterns of markers. Some markers would be pre-defined 3D animations and others would be ‘create-your-own’ stickers (this would be printed on the back of the sticker). For create-your-own stickers, a website would be provided where the student could create their own 3D image to link to the marker. A huge white board would be placed somewhere in the North Avenue apartment courtyard where students could go and place their stickers. When the students look at the board through their iPhones they can see the art piece they are collaboratively creating then place new stickers accordingly to add to the art piece.

Concept 11: Bulletin Board of Campus Activities




A board would be placed in a central location of the courtyard, possibly close to the bus stop where it would receive the most traffic. The board will consist of one giant AR marker. On this board, students would be able to update various activities that are taking place on campus in the near future. Updates would be organized by date and time. Thus, if a North Avenue resident is bored in their apartment on a Friday night, they can point their phone out their window, aim it at the board, and pick from a list of options, something to do that night. The board can be frequently updated, and expired events will be automatically deleted. This is more beneficial than a tangible bulletin board because it will not collect littered paper of old events.

Concept 12: Walking Paths



The main purpose of the courtyard is being an open space through which residents travel. Many residents seldom stop in the courtyard as they just cut through it to catch the bus, walk to class, go to the gym, etc. The walking paths concept will create some type of colorful design based on the paths that people walk. Each person will randomly be assigned a color, but they have the option to change their colors. RFID readers will be placed at various checkpoints throughout the courtyard. As residents walk by the RFID readers with their buzzcard, the readers will log their location. A path will connect from reader to read to create a geometric, jagged line based on their paths. Residents can aim their camera phone out the windows of their apartments and view the paths created by the RFID readers. The user can select how many paths they will like to be shown in case too many paths make it cluttered.

Concept 13: Building-Scaled Space Invaders



An AR marker will be placed in the center of either the North Ave East or North Ave South building face. When a user aims their camera phone at the marker, a building-sized version of the Space Invaders game will be projected onto the building. The windows on the building will be the initial location of the invaders, which from there will change locations as they try to dodge you. The game will be loaded on your camera, so you can play the game directly on your phone.

Concept 14: Catch King Kong



This is a very simple hide-and-seek game. When you aim your camera at the North Ave East and South buildings, you will see a King Kong character on your screen. He scales the buildings and jumps around trying to escape your grasps. You must keep him within your screen at all times. If he jumps out of your screen, you have 5 seconds to find him again and contain him in your screen. Whoever survives the longest wins.

Concept 15: Curiosity Cage



A marker will be placed in the middle of the courtyard. This marker will project a steel animal cage. Each day, a different animal will random appear in the cage, and users can interact with it. The user never knows what creature will appear next.

3 related AR concepts

Augmented Reality Magic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk1xjbA-ISE

This software is an implementation of AR in magic tricks, allowing for 3D pop ups and stuff to appear over the cards that the user is doing the trick with. This ability to place blank areas over existing items is something that would have to be integrated into most of our group's concept ideas. For instance, we would have to put holes in the North Avenue buildings for the "choose your destruction" concept design.

Tinmith Augmented Reality Project

http://www.tinmith.net/

This project is an AR project that implements much more than just a cell phone. The user wears an entire AR suit that has its own hardware attached to the user's back. The user is able to model three dimensional objects in the real world through the gloves he is wearing and the goggles he is using. This implementation is important to our concepts as it demonstrates AR's ability to completely immerse the user in the virtual world, although the hardware isn't entirely streamlined at this point.

Gizmondo AR Game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfp8id6bpDU

This last project is possibly the most applicable to the concepts that we have developed as it is AR being implemented in the form of a game. Users can use the goggles supplied with the package to create a tower defense game on any given surface. The tower defense game works just as any other tower defense game does, but it has the added appeal of being three-dimensional and seems to be in the real world.