Multimodal augmented reality tangible gaming

This paper presents tangible augmented reality gaming environment that can be used to enhance entertainment using a multimodal tracking interface. Players can interact using different combinations between a pinch glove, a Wiimote, a six-degrees-of-freedom tracker, through tangible ways as well as through I/O controls. Two tabletop augmented reality games have been designed and implemented including a racing game and a pile game. The goal of the augmented reality racing game is to start the car and move around the track without colliding with either the wall or the objects that exist in the gaming arena. Initial evaluation results showed that multimodal-based interaction games can be beneficial in gaming. Based on these results, an augmented reality pile game was implemented with goal of completing a circuit of pipes (from a starting point to an end point on a grid). Initial evaluation showed that tangible interaction is preferred to keyboard interaction and that tangible games are much more enjoyable.     

Use of voice input to enhance cursor control in mainstream gaming applications

There are opportunities for use of voice input to enhance the effectiveness of continuous cursor control in mainstream gaming. This paper describes a program that uses voice input to manipulate the cursor gain parameter within the context of a game. For some use groups the ability to dynamically manipulate this parameter can be important in making games more accessible. The program makes use of readily-available speech technology, and can be used in conjunction with existing games.     

High-resolution gaming: Interfaces,notifications, and the user experience

Advances in technology and display hardware have allowed the resolution of monitors – and video games – to incrementally improve over the past three decades. However, little research has been done in preparation for the resolutions that will be available in the future if this trend continues. We developed a number of display prototypes to explore the different aspects of gaming on large, high-resolution displays.By running a series of experiments, we were not only able to evaluate the benefits of these displays for gaming, but also identify potential user interface and hardware issues that can arise. Building on these results, various interface designs were developed to better notify the user of passive and critical game information as well as to overcome difficulties with mouse-based interaction on these displays. Different display form factors and user input devices are also explored in order to determine how they can further enhance the gaming experience. In many cases, the new techniques can be applied to single-monitor games and solve the same problems in real-world, high-resolution applications.     

组合型人眼识别方法及其应用

提出一种快速实时的组合型人眼识别方法,该方法由人眼检测和人眼跟踪2个部分组成。在检测过程中,采用级联AdaBoost分类器检测出人眼位置;在跟踪过程中,先利用卡尔曼滤波器追踪瞳孔,若瞳孔追踪失败,则使用平均位移追踪。该方法已在DM6446嵌入式系统中实现,实验结果证明该方法能快速识别人眼的位置。     

基于头部姿态分析的摄像头视线追踪系统优化

实时视线跟踪技术是智能眼动操作系统的关键技术。与基于眼动仪的技术相比,基于网络摄像头的技术具有低成本、高通用性等优点。针对现有的基于摄像头的算法只考虑眼部图像特征、准确度较低的问题,提出引入头部姿态分析的视线追踪算法优化技术。首先,通过人脸特征点检测结果构建头部姿态特征,为标定数据提供头部姿态上下文;然后,研究了新的相似度算法,计算头部姿态上下文的相似度;最后,在进行视线追踪时,利用头部姿态相似度对校准数据进行过滤,从标定数据集中选取与当前输入帧头部姿态相似度较高的数据进行预测。在选取不同特征人群的数据上进行了大量实验,对比实验结果显示,与WebGazer相比,所提算法的平均误差降低了58~63 px。所提算法能有效提高追踪结果的准确性和稳定性,拓展了摄像头设备在视线追踪领域的应用场景。     

基于头部姿态分析的摄像头视线追踪系统优化

实时视线跟踪技术是智能眼动操作系统的关键技术。与基于眼动仪的技术相比，基于网络摄像头的技术具有低成本、高通用性等优点。针对现有的基于摄像头的算法只考虑眼部图像特征、准确度较低的问题，提出引入头部姿态分析的视线追踪算法优化技术。首先，通过人脸特征点检测结果构建头部姿态特征，为标定数据提供头部姿态上下文；然后，研究了新的相似度算法，计算头部姿态上下文的相似度；最后，在进行视线追踪时，利用头部姿态相似度对校准数据进行过滤，从标定数据集中选取与当前输入帧头部姿态相似度较高的数据进行预测。在选取不同特征人群的数据上进行了大量实验，对比实验结果显示，与WebGazer相比，所提算法的平均误差降低了58~63 px。所提算法能有效提高追踪结果的准确性和稳定性，拓展了摄像头设备在视线追踪领域的应用场景。     

What Are You Looking at?

In this paper we present a novel mechanism to obtain enhanced gaze estimation for subjects looking at a scene or an image. The system makes use of prior knowledge about the scene (e.g. an image on a computer screen), to define a probability map of the scene the subject is gazing at, in order to find the most probable location. The proposed system helps in correcting the fixations which are erroneously estimated by the gaze estimation device by employing a saliency framework to adjust the resulting gaze point vector. The system is tested on three scenarios: using eye tracking data, enhancing a low accuracy webcam based eye tracker, and using a head pose tracker. The correlation between the subjects in the commercial eye tracking data is improved by an average of 13.91%. The correlation on the low accuracy eye gaze tracker is improved by 59.85%, and for the head pose tracker we obtain an improvement of 10.23%. These results show the potential of the system as a way to enhance and self-calibrate different visual gaze estimation systems.     

Acceptance and use of virtual reality games: an extension of HMSAM

Virtual reality (VR) is considered as one of the technological megatrends of 2020s, and today, VR systems are used in various settings, digital gaming being among the most popular ones. However, there has been a dearth of understanding regarding the central factors behind VR gaming acceptance and use. The present study therefore aimed to explain the factors that drive the use and acceptance of VR games. We extended the hedonic-motivation system acceptance model with utilitarian and inconvenience factors to capture the pertinent features of VR systems more holistically. We proposed a theoretical model and analyzed it through covariance-based structural equation modeling using an online survey sample of 473 VR gamers. Our findings help explain the role of different antecedents behind VR gaming acceptance and demonstrate that VR gaming is driven more by the hedonic gaming aspects than by the utilitarian health and well-being aspects of VR games, enjoyment being the strongest driver behind VR gaming intention and immersion. Moreover, findings also suggested that use intentions and immersion levels are not significantly diminished by physical discomfort and VR sickness. The findings, which potentially extend to other VR systems as well, also pose important implications for the providers of VR games. As the main contribution, based on our empirical findings, we provide a greater theoretical understanding on VR gaming acceptance and use.

     

Using a Visual Attention Model to Improve Gaze Tracking Systems in Interactive 3D Applications

This paper introduces the use of a visual attention model to improve the accuracy of gaze tracking systems. Visual attention models simulate the selective attention part of the human visual system. For instance, in a bottom‐up approach, a saliency map is defined for the image and gives an attention weight to every pixel of the image as a function of its colour, edge or intensity. Our algorithm uses an uncertainty window, defined by the gaze tracker accuracy, and located around the gaze point given by the tracker. Then, using a visual attention model, it searches for the most salient points, or objects, located inside this uncertainty window, and determines a novel, and hopefully, better gaze point. This combination of a gaze tracker together with a visual attention model is considered as the main contribution of the paper. We demonstrate the promising results of our method by presenting two experiments conducted in two different contexts: (1) a free exploration of a visually rich 3D virtual environment without a specific task, and (2) a video game based on gaze tracking involving a selection task. Our approach can be used to improve real‐time gaze tracking systems in many interactive 3D applications such as video games or virtual reality applications. The use of a visual attention model can be adapted to any gaze tracker and the visual attention model can also be adapted to the application in which it is used.     

Eye tracking as an MT evaluation technique

Eye tracking has been used successfully as a technique for measuring cognitive load in reading, psycholinguistics, writing, language acquisition etc. for some time now. Its application as a technique for measuring the reading ease of MT output has not yet, to our knowledge, been tested. We report here on a preliminary study testing the use and validity of an eye tracking methodology as a means of semi-automatically evaluating machine translation output. 50 French machine translated sentences, 25 rated as excellent and 25 rated as poor in an earlier human evaluation, were selected. Ten native speakers of French were instructed to read the MT sentences for comprehensibility. Their eye gaze data were recorded non-invasively using a Tobii 1750 eye tracker. The average gaze time and fixation count were found to be higher for the “bad” sentences, while average fixation duration and pupil dilations were not found to be substantially different for output rated as good and output rated as bad. Comparisons between HTER scores and eye gaze data were also found to correlate well with gaze time and fixation count, but not with pupil dilation and fixation duration. We conclude that the eye tracking data, in particular gaze time and fixation count, correlate reasonably well with human evaluation of MT output but fixation duration and pupil dilation may be less reliable indicators of reading difficulty for MT output. We also conclude that eye tracking has promise as a semi-automatic MT evaluation technique, which does not require bi-lingual knowledge, and which can potentially tap into the end users’ experience of machine translation output.     

Typology and Sociodemographic Characteristics of Massively Multiplayer Online Game Players

To date, there has been relatively little research comparing different types of online gamers. The main aim of this study was to provide robust benchmark data on different types of Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) players using a large sample of online gamers. An online survey was used to recruit 4,374 Hungarian online gamers from websites offering different types of MMOGs. In addition to sociodemographic characteristics, the study also collected data on gaming preference, amount of time spent gaming, amount of money spent on the game, and whether they played at an amateur or professional level. A latent profile analysis of gaming preferences differentiated between eight specific gamer types, of which four types emerged as clear categories, indicating clear preference for a specific type of game (role-playing games, first-person shooter games, real-time strategy games, and other games). Overall, 79% of gamers belonged to these four categories. First-person shooter gamers were almost exclusively male, younger aged, lower educated, and of lower socioeconomic status. Real-time strategy gamers were older. Female gamers were most likely to play “Other” games and/or role-playing games. In relation to time spent gaming, role-playing gamers appeared to be the most vulnerable. The results indicated that a significant number of gamers have clear gaming preferences, and these specific gaming types are associated with significant differences regarding sociodemographic and gaming characteristics of gamers.     

Video arrays for real-time tracking of person,head, and face in an intelligent room

Real-time three-dimensional tracking of people is an important requirement for a growing number of applications. In this paper we describe two trackers; both of them use a network of video cameras for person tracking. These trackers are called a rectilinear video array tracker (R-VAT) and an omnidirectional video array tracker (O-VAT), indicating the two different ways of video capture. The specific objectives of this paper are twofold: (i) to present a systematic comparison of these two trackers using an extensive series of experiments conducted in an `intelligent' room; (ii) to develop a real-time system for tracking the head and face of a person, as an extension of the O-VAT approach. The comparative research indicates that O-VAT is more robust to the number of people, less complex and runs faster, needs manual camera calibration, and the integrated omnidirectional video network has better reconfigurability. The person head and face tracker study shows that such a system can serve as a most effective input stage for face recognition and facial expression analysis modules.     

Real-time lip reading system for isolated Korean word recognition

This paper proposes a real-time lip reading system (consisting of a lip detector, lip tracker, lip activation detector, and word classifier), which can recognize isolated Korean words. Lip detection is performed in several stages: face detection, eye detection, mouth detection, mouth end-point detection, and active appearance model (AAM) fitting. Lip tracking is then undertaken via a novel two-stage lip tracking method, where the model-based Lucas-Kanade feature tracker is used to track the outer lip, and then a fast block matching algorithm is used to track the inner lip. Lip activation detection is undertaken through a neural network classifier, the input for which being a combination of the lip motion energy function and the first dominant shape feature. In the last step, input words are defined and recognized by three different classifiers: HMM, ANN, and K-NN. We combine the proposed lip reading system with an audio-only automatic speech recognition (ASR) system to improve the word recognition performance in the noisy environments. We then demonstrate the potential applicability of the combined system for use within hands free in-vehicle navigation devices. Results from experiments undertaken on 30 isolated Korean words using the K-NN classifier at a speed of 15 fps demonstrate that the proposed lip reading system achieves a 92.67% word correct rate (WCR) for person-dependent tests, and a 46.50% WCR for person-independent tests. Also, the combined audio-visual ASR system increases the WCR from 0% to 60% in a noisy environment.     

Analyzing repetitive action in game based on sequence pattern matching

As games become more popular, procedures which can support the analysis and understanding of players’ behaviors are necessary for success of commercial games. This paper presents a log-based usability evaluation system to analyze user behavior in a gaming environment. We explore the potential of input log data for automated usability evaluation and visualization of player behavior in a game. We traced the keyboard input value and mouse movement of users using a sequence data mining technique in a gaming environment. And we also constructed 3D body meshes for the behavior analysis using Kinect interface. We visualized the data obtained by tracing and automatically searched repetitive patterns in the game and analyzed them. The result obtained from the analysis can be used for user interface optimization, fun evaluation, and the bot-detection field.     

基于堆栈式消噪自编码机的分块目标跟踪

在视觉目标跟踪系统中, 特征的表达和提取是重要的组成部分. 本文提出基于多个自编码机网络相联合的特征提取机, 通过对输入数据进行一定程度的重组, 采用深度学习的理论对其局部特征进行描述并对结果进行联合决策. 结合该网络结构, 本文提出一种融合局部特征的深度信息进行目标跟踪的算法. 将输入图像分块使得大量的乘法运算转化为加法和乘法的混合运算, 相对于全局的特征表达, 大幅降低了运算复杂度. 在跟踪过程中, 目标候选区的各分块权重能够根据相应网络的置信度进行自适应的调整, 提升了跟踪器对光照变化、目标姿态和遮挡的适应. 实验表明, 该跟踪算法在鲁棒性和跟踪速度上表现优秀.     

Psychosocial causes and consequences of pathological gaming

Pathological use of computer and video games has been associated with indicators of psychosocial well-being, such as loneliness, low self-esteem, low social competence, and low life satisfaction. However, few studies have decisively demonstrated whether these indicators of psychosocial well-being are causes or consequences of pathological gaming. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted a two-wave panel study among 851 Dutch adolescents (543 gamers). Causal relations were analyzed using autoregressive structural equation models. These analyses indicated that social competence, self-esteem, and loneliness were significant predictors of pathological gaming six months later. Thus, lower psychosocial well-being can be considered an antecedent of pathological gaming among adolescent gamers. Our analyses further indicated that loneliness was also a consequence of pathological gaming. This suggests that displacement of real-world social interaction resulting from pathological use of video games may deteriorate existing relationships, which could explain the increase in adolescent gamers’ feelings of loneliness.     

Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review

Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented.     

Scalable and robust multi-people head tracking by combining distributed multiple sensors

In this paper, we present a robust 3D human-head tracking method. 3D head positions are essential for robots interacting with people. Natural interaction behaviors such as making eye contacts require head positions. Past researches with laser range finder (LRF) have been successful in tracking 2D human position with high accuracy in real time. However, LRF trackers cannot track multiple 3D head positions. On the other hand, trackers with multi-viewpoint images can obtain 3D head position. However, vision-based trackers generally lack robustness and scalability, especially in open environments where lightening conditions vary by time. To achieve 3D robust real-time tracking, here we propose a new method that combines LRF tracker and multi-camera tracker. We combine the results from trackers using the LRF results as maintenance information toward multi-camera tracker. Through an experiment in a real environment, we show that our method outperforms toward existing methods, both in its robustness and scalability.     

基于眼动仪的飞行员疲劳判定相关属性研究

飞行员驾驶疲劳是影响飞行安全的重要因素之一。眼动仪已被尝试应用于驾驶人员的疲劳检测,但眼动仪采集数据属性较多,且缺乏明确的疲劳判定决策属性,故将PVT（精神运动警戒任务）测量所得疲劳程度组合进眼动仪测量数据中,作为决策属性,采用基于二元信道互信息的粗糙集属性约简方法,进行针对疲劳判定的眼动仪属性知识约简,并在约简前后,分别采用BP神经网络进行分类计算。结果表明,将二元信道互信息作为启发式信息,进行以疲劳判定为目标的眼动仪属性约简,能有效提取反映飞行员驾驶疲劳的主要属性。     

Students' attitudes toward playing games and using games in education: Comparing Scotland and the Netherlands

Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who seek to exploit the characteristics of computer games as they are perceived by some to be a potentially effective approach for teaching and learning. Despite this interest in using games-based learning there is a dearth of empirical evidence supporting the validity of the approach covering the wider context of gaming and education. This study presents a large scale gaming survey, involving 887 students from 13 different Higher Education (HE) institutes in Scotland and the Netherlands, which examines students' characteristics related to their gaming preferences, game playing habits, and their perceptions and thoughts on the use of games in education. It presents a comparison of three separate groups of students: a group in regular education in a Scottish university, a group in regular education in universities in the Netherlands and a distance learning group from a university in the Netherlands. This study addresses an overall research question of: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related to the overall research question:

• •What are the different game playing habits of the three groups?
• •What are the different motivations for playing games across the three groups?
• •What are the different reasons for using games in HE across the three groups?
• •What are the different attitudes towards games across the three groups?

To our knowledge this is the first in-depth cross-national survey on gaming and education. We found that a large number of participants believed that computer games could be used at HE level for educational purposes and that further research in the area of game playing habits, motivations for playing computer games and motivations for playing computer games in education are worthy of extensive further investigation. We also found a clear distinction between the views of students in regular education and those in distance education. Regular education students in both countries rated all motivations for playing computer games as significantly more important than distance education students. Also the results suggest that Scottish students aim to enhance their social experience with regards to competition and cooperation, while Dutch students aim to enhance their leisurely experience with regards to leisure, feeling good, preventing boredom and excitement.