Communications of the ACM
How Games Can Lead to a Radical Redesign of Everyday Computer Use
NYU-Poly Associate Professor Katherine Isbister and her students have begun looking at whether and how movement can change the way people learn.
Credit: Polytechnic Institute of New York University
Polytechnic Institute of New York University researchers are using video games and human-computer interfaces to devise new ways of engaging with computers physically and emotionally, which they say could lead to positive practical outcomes.
The researchers, led by professor Katherine Isbister, focus on the experience people have physically when they interact with computers. The success of movement-based gaming such as the Wii and Kinect, along with the rapid growth in multi-touch devices such as smartphones and tablets, has led to an era of movement-based interaction, Isbister says. "You might think because it's movement, and movement is something we do every day, that this is intuitive and easy to do," she says. "But it's hard to design good movement and gestural-based interfaces."
Isbister is researching the essential qualities of useful and pleasing movement-based interactions that integrate natural movement. One project is a game called Wriggle. The researchers created two versions of the game, one of which is controlled with a keyboard, and the other with a Wii remote. The researchers studied how to isolate the effects of movements on players, focusing on building devices and applications beyond gaming.
From Polytechnic Institute of New York University
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Abstracts Copyright © 2011 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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