My Concept

No rest elevators - making HHS students and employees move

After studying almost 2 years in the Hague University it is easy to see areas where students and HHS employees get lazy in terms of physical movement. Place where I noticed this problem is in Slinger section of the building, more specifically in the elevators.

As Slinger has 8 floors people use elevators a lot, however many of them are using elevators to get up/down even one floor.

That’s why I decided to use Exertion Gaming inside elevators. My idea is to make people nudge into shared physical activity in order to make elevator move. I want people to collaborate in order to achieve their goal, and not at any point make them compete.

As elevators need to be used properly in order to work, I have decided not to use jumping, running or any related activities.

Interaction

Elevators would be upgraded so they have LED screen on each wall. On these screens different human body positions would appear. Once entered, person would need to perform position shown next to him/her. The better a person performs specific position, the faster an elevator will move. Moreover, in order to achieve goal everyone in the elevator would need to perform certain position. More people working together, quicker they will achieve their goal. Obviously there would be option not to participate in the game due to respect for disabled people.

Technology

As mentioned previously elevators will include screens in order to display graphic output. Moreover, several Kinect sensors will be hidden in the walls in order to distinguish if person is performing position in the right way. At the end whole system would need to be integrated with elevators’ motors to control speed.

Own research

Dance Arcade

One Exortion Game that has not been mention during class is very oldschool game, usually seen in game rooms, and it is called Dance Arcade.

Play modus

Game can be played both by single player on multiplayer (2 players usually). In terms of multiplayer this game is competitive as players need to achieve the highest score. Player with better score wins.

At the beginning players could only play at the same location but technology allowed creators to make Dance Arcade that gives possibility to play multiplayer in different locations.

Purpose

Dance Arcade is a game that’s main purpose is entertainment. It’s competitive characteristics made hundreds of thousands of fans around the globe. Secondly, Dance Arcade is perfect for people who like video games but lack physical activity. For longterm users, Dance Arcade might help in learning dancing and feeling the rhythm.

Technology

As input, game only requires pressure pads. By hitting specific area on the ground user gives computer input. As output user only needs screen in front of him. With progress Dance Arcade use sensors like Kinect and “see” player’s position. This made oldschool single location game accessible for everyone.

Virtuix Omni

Second game that fits to Exortion Gaming and was not mentioned during class is Virtuix Omni.

Play modus

Virtuix Omni is more of a software/hardware rather than game, hence its modus depends on the game chosen. When user plays versus computer and has to complete some missions it will be single player game. However if users are playing online Virtuix Omni can serve as a multiplayer game, with users on different locations both collaborative and competitive.

Purpose

The purpose of this game is to nudge users into physical activity, combining it with video games. Mostly the purpose of Virtuix Omni will be entertainment.

Technology

Virtuix Omni uses advanced new technology - Augmented Reality. As a basis it needs to have all required sensors needed to make AR work. I suppose that, stepping pad, what makes Virtuix Omni special, uses pressure pads located both in the shoes and on the pad itself. It needs to be really detailed in counting users speed and location.

Reflection

Exortion Gaming is an interesting topic, however personally I do not see beauty of it. In my opinion using human movements as input is too hard to measure with current technology and is not that innovative when it comes to other usage than entertainment. But in the longterm it is beautiful topic to research, as in 10-20 years we will probably see better technology and usages.

In the future I believe that there will appear more of Exortion Interfaces. I am curious to see how it might help in social interaction in semi-public and public spaces. In my opinion technology progress and better research will allow us to create Exortion Interfaces that will solve real life problems.

The subject did not meet my expectations, however I understand its role during HCI course.