Digitally Augmenting Traditional Play Environments · “Magic Mirror” and “Magic Loupe”...

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Digitally Augmenting Traditional Play Environments Steve Hinske

Transcript of Digitally Augmenting Traditional Play Environments · “Magic Mirror” and “Magic Loupe”...

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Digitally Augmenting Traditional Play Environments

Steve Hinske

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Thesis

Traditional play environments can benefit from the merging of the virtual and the real world

enabled by pervasive computing technologies.

However, to digitally augment such environments, many aspects must be considered and many

technical challenges must be successfully overcome.

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Challenges (Examples)

!  Integration of technology (e.g., small play objects) !  It’s about fun: reliability, real-time response, etc. !  High dynamics of play environments !  Users do not have technical knowledge !  Special user group: children

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Definitions

!  Digitally Augmented Traditional Play Environment: a physical-traditional play environment that is digitally augmented using pervasive computing technologies in order to enhance the players’ experience by providing them with novel virtual elements and/or services.

!  Digital Augmentation: the process of integrating pervasive computing technologies into real-world objects to equip them with sensing, computing, storing and/or communication

capabilities.

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Contributions

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Theoretical Background

Digital Augmentation

Two Exemplary Prototypes / Use Cases

Warhammer 41K The Augmented Knight’s Castle

User Study of the AKC

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MOTIVATION AND BACKGROUND

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Motivation

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Creation of new play forms Augmentation of traditional play environments

Support of the players by providing services

Integration of virtual play and game elements

Pervasive computing technologies enable:

Context-relevant information and services

Mundane tasks

Motivation and Background

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1: Based on Crawford. Chris Crawford on Game Design. New Riders Publ., 2003 2: Soanes & Hawker. Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English. Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 2005.

Entertainment

Playthings

Challenges

Conflicts

Games

Movies, Books, etc.

Toys

Puzzles

Competitions

ludic

common goals

competitor

attacks allowed

non-interactive

no goals

no competitor

no attacks

Role-Playing

(Games)

Story-Telling

narrative

interactive

no rules

rules

interactive

interactive narra

tive

ludic

Extended1 Taxonomy of Entertainment

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Motivation and Background

narrative ludic

“Play: activities engaged for enjoyment”2

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Two Forms of Augmented Play Environments

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Warhammer 40K Knight’s Castle (KC) Warhammer 41K Augmented Knight’s Castle (AKC)

Motivation and Background

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DIGITAL AUGMENTATION: PROCESS AND DESIGN GUIDELINES

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Problem

!  How can we digitally augment a play environment to support players and create more immersive environments without compromising its tangible and social benefits?

!  What parts of the play environment should be digitally augmented?

!  How can these parts be digitally augmented? !  What (technical) aspects must be considered?

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Digital Augmentation – Process and Guidelines

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Process of Digital Augmentation

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Digital Augmentation – Process and Guidelines

Play Environment Analysis

• Goals • Characteristics

Requirements Analysis

•  Functional Requirements

• Non-functional Requirements

Design and Implementation

•  Virtual Components

•  Physical Augmentation

• User Interfaces

Evaluation

•  (Lab) Tests • User Studies

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Play Environment Analysis

!  Characteristics (examples) !  Target user group

!  Primary users !  Secondary users (spectators, parents, content provides, etc.)

!  Boundaries !  Space !  Objects !  Players !  Time

!  Rules, patterns

!  Goals of digital augmentation !  E.g., “relieve players of manual score-keeping”

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“Magic Circle”1

Digital Augmentation – Process and Guidelines

1: Huizinga. Homo Ludens. Beacon Press, June 1971.

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Requirements Analysis

!  Goal: “relieve the players of manual score-keeping”

!  Functional requirement: “introduction of a virtual scorekeeper” !  Provide means to retrieve current score !  Catch game states that result in score changes

!  Non-functional requirements (examples) !  Reliability !  Performance !  Invisibility and unobtrusiveness

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Digital Augmentation – Process and Guidelines

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Design and Implementation

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Toy Design Physical Augmentation

(Pervasive) Games

System / Virtualization

Educational Aspects

(Tangible) User Interfaces

Digital Augmentation – Process and Guidelines

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Design Guidelines (Examples)

!  The play set should still be playable (in the “traditional” way); even if the technology is switched off or malfunctioning.

!  Secondary user interfaces should be minimized.

!  Strive for in situ interaction / situated action: interaction (e.g., configuration) happens right in the play.

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Digital Augmentation – Process and Guidelines

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Difficulties of Evaluating APEs

!  Resource-intensive !  Evaluation in the field !  Evaluation of the complete system !  No evaluation standards !  Data gathering !  Technical issues

!  Children as users !  It’s about fun

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Digital Augmentation – Process and Guidelines

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USE CASE: THE AUGMENTED KNIGHT’S CASTLE

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Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

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Characteristics (Examples)

!  Number of players: unlimited. During a play session, players may join or leave.

!  The play field is not spatially restricted and subject to constant changes. There are no discrete fields.

!  The play set consists of many play objects. During a play session, new (semantically foreign) objects might be added.

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Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

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Model of Compelling Mixed Reality1

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1: Stapleton et al. Applying mixed reality to entertainment. Computer, 35(12):122–124, 2002.

Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

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Functional Requirements

Goal: enhance children’s play experience and provide educational content in a playful way

!  Integration of novel (multimedia) effects !  Integration of educational content for playful learning !  Provision of means to configure the environment !  Integration of devices to enable new interaction forms

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Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

FR1

FR2

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Identifying and Locating Objects

!  Requirements: !  Unambiguous identification !  Unobtrusive detection !  Reliable and quasi-real-time !  Maintenance-free

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Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

FR1 FR2

Unique ID Small footprint of tags Fast tag detection Low maintenance

RFID

Technology

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Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

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Reader

Hardware

Reader

Thread

Figure

Server

Figure

ThreadPlayer

tags

setPosition

read

notify

read

tags

play

Background System

!  Idea: all information stored “in” the figures

!  Each location operates independently

!  Web services for flexibility

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Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

FR1 FR2

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Additional Effects

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Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

FR1 FR2

!  Light and smoke effects !  Also configurable

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Integrating and Providing Educational Content

!  Children: !  Facts and stories about the Middle Ages in several languages

!  Directly (i.e., talking figures) !  Indirectly (i.e., using a mediator device)

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Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

FR1 FR2

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“Castle Tours”

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Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

FR1 FR2

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“Magic Mirror” and “Magic Loupe”

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The magic mirror consists of a PC with a display, a

web cam, and a small wooden pedestal with an

embedded RFID antenna. A child can use the magic

mirror by simply placing a figure on the pedestal: the

mirror will then switch from displaying the child’s

reflection (using the web cam) to displaying the

learning modules associated with this figure (see Fig. 3

and 4). In order to recognize the child, we provide

them with a personal magic item (e.g., a brooch, a

magic card, or a figurine) that they will need to wear or

place next to the mirror in order to activate it. Each

magic item contains an RFID transponder that

identifies the child in the game environment, thus

supporting an individual learning history for each child

in order to keep track of his or her progress.

Figure 4: A screenshot of the magic mirror.

The magic mirror then displays the educational

content available for this play figure. Depending on the

available content, the children can select from a

number of different learning modules and retrieve

information about the figure as well as facts about the

Middle Ages in general. In contrast to the verbal com-

mentaries, the magic mirror is much more powerful in

terms of feedback (i.e., text, pictures, and videos).

The main advantage, however, is the higher level of

interactivity: while the verbal commentaries during the

play allow for some interaction with the children (cf.

Fig. 2), the magic mirror is capable of more

sophisticated selection and feedback processes such as

quizzes and puzzles with regard to the previously

displayed educational content.

In addition to the magic mirror, a PDA-based

solution was implemented. This approach is mainly

motivated by two trends regarding mobile phones and

similar devices: first, these devices are steadily

becoming more powerful with novel capabilities being

added and old ones improved constantly. Second, the

number of children in possession of mobile phones is

continuously growing, even at elementary school age

[3]. In other words, small mobile devices must be

considered seriously when designing pervasive

(computing) environments, even for children.

The PDA can be seen as a pocket magic mirror and

principally offers the same functionality as the magic

mirror. The problem is that a PDA has limited

resources by comparison and a standard browser on the

PDA is often not sufficient since the browser usually

displays the original website with scroll bars, ne-

cessitating a custom-built user interface. We thus

implemented our own user interface with Microsoft

Visual Studio .NET. The PDA, an HP iPAQ hx2400,

has integrated WiFi and an attached RFID reader

(Socket RSC 6E) (see Fig. 5).

Figure 5: The PDA with the attached RFID.

This device is capable of (dis-)playing of almost all

learning modules – the multimedia content is dynami-

cally adjusted to the I/O capabilities of this device

(e.g., images /videos are resized accordingly).

3 The Underlying Infrastructure

Our main goal was to design a flexible, extensible,

and easily comprehensible infrastructure for interactive

and playful learning in augmented toy environments.

To this end, the infrastructure must provide means to

easily link educational content to play objects and

means to retrieve this content.

While our main target group are children playing

with the play set, there are two more parties involved:

first, parents or educators (i.e., pre-school teachers),

who supposedly purchase the toys and have an interest

in knowing what these toys can and cannot do. Second,

there are the content and toy designers, who create

educational content modules and subsequently

associate them with the play objects. With regard to the

augmented toy environment and the individual

interests, we can derive the following use cases:

Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

FR1 FR2

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Integrating and Providing Educational Content

!  Children: play learning modules !  Facts and stories about the Middle Ages in several languages

!  Directly (i.e., talking figures) !  Indirectly (i.e., using a mediator device)

!  Parents / educators: modify and pre-select modules !  Web-based user interface !  Review individual interaction / learning histories

!  Developers: create and modify modules !  Content management system

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Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

FR1 FR2

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Design Guidelines

!  Invisibility and unobtrusiveness !  The technology must be safe

(e.g., no electricity, sharp edges or poisonous materials).

!  Support multiple simultaneous interactions. !  System feedback should always be immediate.

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Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

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Iterative Development of the AKC

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First Version Second Version Third Version

Preliminary Study (CH)

User Study (D) User Study (UK) Testing

Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

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Three Major Iterations of the AKC

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Table 5.4: Major iterations of the AKC.Initial Version Second Version Third VersionSlow response time Quasi-real-time responseEight active zones:one RFID reader, onemultiplexer and eightantennas

Nine active zones: nine readers, threemultiplexers and 23 antennas

Technology is loosely placed under a tableEverything is securedin place (enables easytransportation)

Storage: XML files Storage: Database

All action rules are hardcodedUsers can create andconfigure action rules

Integration of additional devices hardcoded

Web-service-basedinfrastructure forflexible integration ofdevices

Centralized play set with one computer

Distributed play setwith threeautonomous elementsconnected via WiFi

Audio feedback onlyAudio feedback pluslight and smokeeffects

169

Use Case – The Augmented Knight’s Castle

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USER STUDY OF THE AUGMENTED KNIGHT’S CASTLE

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Goals

!  To test the success of the digital augmentation, mainly in terms of robustness and usability.

!  To compare the augmented with the non-augmented play set in terms of children’s perceptions of fun.

!  To explore the effects of the augmented play set on interactive play and storytelling.

!  To explore the value of an augmented play set for conveying educational content.

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The Augmented Knight’s Castle – User Study

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Two Play Sets

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The Augmented Knight’s Castle – User Study

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Method

!  Each play set in a separate room !  Free play !  KC or AKC: 35-40min !  AKC/KC or KC/AKC: 20min each

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The Augmented Knight’s Castle – User Study

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Participants

Test type No. of groups

No. of Graders

1st 2nd 3rd 4th ! KC 13 6 6 11 10 33 AKC 12 8 8 8 9 33 KC/AKC 8 2 4 5 3 14 AKC/KC 6 6 6 3 8 23 ! 39 22 24 27 30 103

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The Augmented Knight’s Castle – User Study

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Interviewing the Children

!  Initial interview (name, age, possession of devices, etc.) !  Open questions (stories, what they liked, disliked, etc.) !  Questionnaire (fun, educational content)

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The Augmented Knight’s Castle – User Study

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!

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H<"!/)%,!219!/-#('1I!.(-5(()!13.Z(>-14!1#/5(&!-#+-!>#$%&'()!

0%100%

GQ1 GQ2 GQ3 NQ4

KC only AKC

!""#$%&'#!"!()*+,#-!.-)*/

0%100%

GQ1 GQ2 GQ3 NQ4

KC only AKC

!""#$%&'#!"!01$#-!

.-)*/

Figure 10: Percentage correct for Given (G) and New (N)

questions for each age group: Immediate post-test (KEY:

GQ1=food, GQ2=leisure, GQ3 = sword, NQ4 = colour).

0

1

2

3

4

5

KC

AKC

KC_A

KC

AKC_K

C

Total

Figure 9. Means of the childdrens’ ratings of how much

fun the KC and the AKC were in each play condition.

!  How much did you like playing with… !  KC: 4.4 !  AKC: 4.6

!  Direct comparison (37 children): !  21 AKC (57%), 6 equal, 10 KC !  27 would play again with the AKC (73%)

!  AKC compared with… !  …traditional toys: 33 out of 33 said “more fun” !  …computer/video games: 32 out of 33 said “more fun”

Children’s Rating of Fun

40 Digitally Augmenting Traditional Play Environments

The Augmented Knight’s Castle – User Study

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Play Behavior

!  Some children just ‘cracked up’ and laughed. !  Some children directly replied to the figures’ utterance:

!  1a: Figure: I’m the golden knight. !  1b: Child: Hello golden knight. !  2a: Figure: I need a new sword, which costs seven cows. !  2b: Child: I don’t have seven cows… !  3a: Figure: I was in the pantry; we have enough bread for the winter. !  3b: Child: Where is the pantry?

!  Some children responded indirectly, e.g., “let’s take the golden knight”.

!  Some children ignored or disregarded it.

41 Digitally Augmenting Traditional Play Environments

The Augmented Knight’s Castle – User Study

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Questions (Educational Content)

!  GQ1: What was the most important food in the Middle Ages? (Answers: bread, meat, potatoes)

!  NQ1: What was the royal color? (Answers: red, yellow, green)

42 Digitally Augmenting Traditional Play Environments

The Augmented Knight’s Castle – User Study

the KC and AKC respectively: ratings for each condition

are shown in Figure 9. When asked to compare the two play

sets directly, 21 of the 37 who played with both sets

preferred the AKC, !2

(1) = 9.78, p<.01, with 6 rating them

equal and 10 preferring the KC. There was no significant

difference in the frequency of children’s preferences

between the two sets in supporting storytelling, !2

(1) = 1.5,

not significant.

If children had another 20 minutes to play with either set,

which one would they choose? 27 out of 37 (73%) chose

the AKC, significantly more than choice of the KC, !2

(1) =

7.8, p<.005. Furthermore, 36 out of 37 (97%) liked having

background music that fits the medieval scenario.

We also asked the children who played only with the AKC

how they liked this form of play compared to traditional

toys and computer/video games. 32 out of 33 (97%) said

the AKC was more fun than video/computer games, and all

(33 out of 33) said it was more fun than traditional toys.

Learning

As described above, we asked children two types of

question: three related to ‘given’ information given in the

AKC and one related to ‘new’ information not given, as a

check on children's general knowledge of MA. There was

an immediate post-test and a delayed test two months later.

Percentage correct responses for the immediate post-test are

shown in Figure 10.

Immediate post-test

An analysis of the proportion of correct answers for the

given and new information, with age and play condition

(which toys the children had played with) as between-

subjects variables showed that in general, older children

answered questions more correctly, F (1, 95) = 5.38, p<.05,

that ‘given’ questions were answered correctly more often

than ‘new’, F (1, 95) = 8.53, p<.01, and more importantly,

there was an interaction between play condition and type of

question, F (3, 95) = 2.9, p<.05.

A separate analysis comparing children who played in

conditions with the AKC and those with only the KC

showed that AKC experience produced better performance

than non-AKC on the given questions (overall means of

84% and 54% correct respectively) but not on the new

question which had not been covered in the AKC (means of

63% and 64% respectively). Clearly, children using the

AKC benefited from the audio information provided, even

though not all actively attended to it.

Delayed post-test

Children were asked the same information questions two

months later, as shown in Figure 11. For the given

questions, performance was slightly but not significantly

lower than the immediate post-test, 69% correct vs. 74%

respectively. An analysis of variance on the given question

scores at delayed test, with age group and testing condition

(KC only vs. others) between subjects, showed that children

who had played with the AKC still did significantly better

than those playing with KC only, F (1, 83) = 20.98, p<.001,

Figure 10: Percentage correct for Given (G) and New (N)

questions for each age group: Immediate post-test (KEY:

GQ1=food, GQ2=leisure, GQ3 = sword, NQ4 = colour).

Figure 9. Means of the childdrens’ ratings of how much

fun the KC and the AKC were in each play condition.

7

84% vs. 54% respectively, and in fact non-AKC children’s

performance would not be better than guessing.

There was also an interaction between play condition and

age group, F (1, 83) = 4.28, p<.05. The difference made by

playing with the AKC was greater for the older than for the

younger group. For a similar analysis of scores on the new

information, there was an effect of testing occasion:

performance regardless of age or play condition was higher

on the second testing, 64% vs. 80%, F (1, 84) = 6.85, p<.01.

Teachers’ Opinions

Teachers’ responses are shown in Figure 12. All thought

traditional toys were very important (Q5), and that

computers were also important but slightly less so (Q4).

They rated the AKC generally very highly (Q1), for both

informal (Q3), and to a slightly lesser extent, formal (Q2)

learning.

DISCUSSION

This study is one of the earliest studies in the field that

begins to make direct comparisons between digitally

augmented and non-augmented equivalent environments.

This is important work in order to understand more clearly

the differences that technology-enhanced environments

have in mediating interaction, and to enable a clearer

understanding of when and how augmented environments

can be best exploited to support play and learning.

A key question is how activity and interaction in the two

environments might differ from one another. Based on the

quantitative data and qualitative analysis of the children’s

interview data we discovered a number of interesting

findings, which suggest ways in which a digitally-

augmented play environment promotes different kinds of

activity from an equivalent non-augmented play

environment. These findings also show important directions

for future work.

Fun and engagement

The statistical results show no significant difference

between children’s perception of fun between the two

environments for those that played with either the KC or

AKC. This is perhaps not surprising as both play

environments are very appealing, but nevertheless

importantly indicates that both environments are valuable in

terms of actively engaging children. However, for those

who played with both environments, there was a significant

preference for the AKC in terms of fun.

While both the statistical analysis and the children’s

Figure 11: Percentage correct for Given (G) and New (N)

questions for each age group: Delayed post-test (KEY:

GQ1=food, GQ2=leisure, GQ3=sword, NQ4 = colour).

Figure 12. Frequency of teacher ratings for each

question. Notes: N= 7; see text for questions.

Ratings from 1 (completely unsuitable / unimportant) to

5 (completely suitable / important). Ratings of 1 and 2

were never given.

Cor

rect

ans

wer

s

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CONCLUSIONS

43 Digitally Augmenting Traditional Play Environments

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Contributions

!  Theoretical foundation !  Digital augmentation

!  Process model !  Design guidelines

!  Two exemplary prototypes / use case !  Warhammer 41K !  The Augmented Knight’s Castle

!  AKC User Study

44 Digitally Augmenting Traditional Play Environments

Conclusions

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Digitally Augmenting Traditional Play Environments

Steve Hinske

45 Digitally Augmenting Traditional Play Environments