Intelligent Database Systems Lab 國立雲林科技大學 National Yunlin University of Science and Technology 1 AirhockeyAirhockey Over a Distance? A Networked Physical Game to Support Social Interactions Advisor : Dr. Hsu Presenter : Chia-Hao Yang Author : Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller, Luke Cole, Shannon O’Brien, Wouter Walmink SIGCHI

Intelligent Database Systems Lab N.Y.U.S.T. I. M. 2  Motivation  Objective  Introduction  Method  Preliminary findings  Conclusions Outline

Intelligent Database Systems Lab N.Y.U.S.T. I. M. 3 Motivation  Currently people are often faced with the challenge of having to live and work apart from family, friends and colleagues.

Intelligent Database Systems Lab N.Y.U.S.T. I. M. 4 Objective  Using “Airhockey over a distance” to support social interactions and contribute to an increased connectedness between people who are physically apart.

Intelligent Database Systems Lab N.Y.U.S.T. I. M. 5 Introduction  Social interaction is an essential human need.  We are interested in enabling social interactions between friends and co-workers separated by distance. ─ How to improve social interaction?  We believe such games can work against the trend of social decline if they support game-play between participants that live geographically apart. Casual games

Intelligent Database Systems Lab N.Y.U.S.T. I. M. 6 Method  Our approach focuses on two components: ─ High quality videoconference & physical game experience ─ Airhockey Over a Distance consists of two airhockey tables, half of each is involved in game play and connected via a network.  Process ─ The player is recorded by a camera and the video is displayed on the screen of the other player, creating the illusion of playing together on one table.

Intelligent Database Systems Lab N.Y.U.S.T. I. M. 7 Method (cont.) ─ Once the puck passes the midway-line, it is detected, and a corresponding physical puck is shot out at the other table.  How about the delay of an airhockey? ─ The mechanical system, the network & videoconferencing ─ It’s tolerable for an enjoyable game experience after preliminary test  Other scenarios ─ Arcade ─ Airports ─ Youth clubs ─ Children’s hospitals

Intelligent Database Systems Lab N.Y.U.S.T. I. M. 8 Preliminary findings  Approximately 30 people interacted with the system, and the demonstration lasted for four hours.  The airhockey tables were set up in two different rooms, where participants could neither see nor hear each other. ─ the speed and position of the pucks are randomly calculated.  Even though this was an informal evaluation, the commend those participants give are not bed or interesting.

Intelligent Database Systems Lab N.Y.U.S.T. I. M. 9 Conclusions  Except casual game, the Airhockey Over a Distance game is able to facilitate an increased connectedness through social interaction between geographically separated players.

Intelligent Database Systems Lab N.Y.U.S.T. I. M. 10 Future work  We plan to improve the puck detection and firing system. ─ Puck detection : more accurate prediction will reduce the problem resulting form the network latency. ─ Firing system : the spinning disk will limit the ability to quickly adjust to fire pucks at a given speed.  After technically refining the system, our next step is to formally analyze the affects of Airhockey Over a Distance on players’ sense of connectedness to each other. ─ Physical & virtual version

Intelligent Database Systems Lab N.Y.U.S.T. I. M. 11 Airhockey