2008:SOFTENG702:InterfacesForPhysicalPlay

Interfaces for Physical Play

Mark Alan MacKinnon Gardiner

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Mgar059@ec.auckland.ac.nz

ABSTRACT

Physically exertive interfaces can be beneficial to the user through healthy exercise, communication, and enjoyment. The goal with most interface design is to accurately interpret a users input with the least amount of the users physical and mental effort. With physical interfaces however, the goal of design can shift to creating an environment which promotes exercise, a greater variety in the methods of controling input, or for creating a more realistic metaphor by creating an interface which resembles a real world physical interaction, examples of these are steering wheels, flight control sticks for simulations, Wii’s, or even levers on gambling machines to represent the rotation of a physical barrel. The benefits gained from exercise from physically intensive interfaces compared to other computer interfaces can make enough difference to manage weight[bmj] in children. The affordance of physical objects can decrease the disparity between simulations and the physical controls they are trying to simulate, reducing learning curves and even benefiting from transferable skills where the skills learnt from a flight simulation for example may be used when the user actually tries to fly a plane. People who use physically exertive interfaces to interact can have a better social bonding experience, inspiring more trust, and can provide a more enjoyable experience than a traditional keyboard and mouse interface.

BODY

The role of computers has evolved over the years. Initially computers were designed to perform arduous and repetitive computational tasks which humans would take much longer to perform and would be far more error prone. With the success of computers at these tasks, they have become much more prolific, adding to the trends of networks and specifically the internet, computers have now become key instruments in communication. As computers and technology has entered the lives of almost all walks of life, the ability for people to communicate and interact has increased like never before. These days it is almost expected that a person will be contactable via a cell phone or email. The down side of this however is the lack of interaction on a more personal or physical level. From early

Computer mediated communication has Physical interfaces have been developed to try and reduce this disparity by mirroring interfaces with more concrete physical metaphors. By appealing to more senses i.e. allowing people to see as well as hear other people via computer rather than relying on text printed to the screen, more of a persons personality and intent can be conveyed. This is important in business situations where teamwork is a key factor for success and small errors such as sarcasm in an email could be misinterpreted for a serious statement, leading to big problems.

• Allow people to communicate more effectively
• Healthier, more exercise
• More captivating

BMJ

In a study done on the energey expendature by adolecents playing new generation active computer games such as those on a Wii, over games of a sedentary nature such as those on an XBOX360, it was found that active computer games use significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games.

Many adolecents have a mostly sedentary lifestyle[3bmj] and time spent at computers is not physically very productive. Adolecents also tend to spend a large amount of time on computer games[6bmj], and it is difficult to persuade them to relinquish these screen based activities.[7bmj]

Using an IDEEA system to predict energy expendature, five girls and six boys played on a relativly inactive game (Project Gotham Racing 3) and then a range of active Wii Sports games. The results confirmed that the energy expendature during active gaming was at least 51% greater than druing sedentary gaming. Wile this may only account for less than 2% of the total weekly energy expendature in these adolecents, it may contribute to weight management.

The energy expended during these simulated sports was still less than what would be expended during authentic boxing, bowling, or tennis. These simulations were still not intense enough to contribue towards the recommended daily amount of physical activity for children.