STARS - A Ubiquitous Computing Platform for Computer ... - CiteSeerX

C. Magerkurth, R. Stenzel, Th. Prante: STARS - A Ubiquitous Computing Platform for Computer Augmented Tabletop Games. In: Peter Ljungstrand, Jason Brotherton (Ed.):Video Track and Adjunct Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (UBICOMP’03), Seattle, Washington, USA, Oct. 12-15, 2003.

STARS - A Ubiquitous Computing Platform for Computer Augmented Tabletop Games Carsten Magerkurth, Richard Stenzel, Thorsten Prante Fraunhofer IPSI ”AMBIENTE – Workspaces of the Future” Dolivostraße 15 D-64293 Darmstadt, Germany +49 (0) 6151 / 869-997 {magerkurth; stenzel; prante}@ipsi.fraunhofer.de ABSTRACT

In this video presentation we demonstrate the STARS platform for realizing computer augmented tabletop games within a smart Roomware® environment. STARS dynamically couples multiple types of interaction devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) or headsets with an interactive game table. STARS augmented tabletop games provide a number of features like dynamic game boards or private communication channels that go beyond traditional tabletop games, but at the same time preserve the human centered interaction dynamics which makes playing board games a joyful group experience. Keywords

Tabletop games, ubiquitous computing platform, smart environment, Roomware INTRODUCTION

During the past decade of ubiquitous and pervasive computing research there has been a growing amount of scientific activity dedicated to the integration of various differently sized and -shaped devices within ubiquitous computing environments. Our realization of such a ubiquitous computing environment and the integrated ‘Roomware®’ devices is presented in [4]. Roomware closely follows Weiser’s notion of calm computing devices that integrate seamlessly into everyday objects [6]. This means that Roomware components still function like traditional room elements (e.g. tables or walls), but provide dedicated computing services for the people in the smart environment. In addition to the cooperative work applications previously developed for the Roomware environment [5], we now present a new software platform to support the realization of tabletop gaming applications with multiple input and output devices that integrate with the platform. The STARS gaming 5 th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp’03), October 12–15, 2003, Seattle, WA, USA Copyright by the Authors of this Publication

environment (STARS stands for Spiel-TischAnReicherungs-Sytem, a German acronym for game table augmentation system) consists of a Roomware hardware setup and a specialized software framework that realizes cross-device interaction through different modes and modalities [3]. The software framework of STARS provides many board -game specific functions such as the administration of the virtual game board that facilitate the development of new games on top of the platform. STARS DEVICES

STARS integrates different input and output devices that each have dedicated purposes within game sessions. Game Table

The game table is the central instance for any tabletop game application. In our setup, it consists of the InteracTable® Roomware component, which is an interactive table with an embedded touch-sensitive plasma display as the table’s surface. The plasma display is used for displaying the contents of game boards and for dealing with related interaction objects. Above the table, an overhead camera tracks the positions of arbitrary playing pieces on the table surface. Below the table’s surface, a radio frequency (RF-ID) antenna is embedded to detect RF-ID tags placed on the table. These tags are used to initiate and terminate different game sessions by just placing them on or removing them from the game table. Wall Display

A large display is located at one wall near the game table. It displays game relevant public information that each player can view at any time. In our setup, the wall display consists of the DynaWall®, which is a Roomware component embedded into one of the walls in our research lab. It is a rear-projected interaction space consisting of three joint segments that allow multiple users to simultaneously interact with the display surface. Personal Digital Assistants

Players can integrate their Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) via an 802.11b network connection to administrate

private information and to communicate clandestinely with other players. Audio Devices

A public loudspeaker is available to emit ambient audio samples or atmospheric music. STARS also integrates headsets that allow players to receive computer-generated private messages or utter verbal commands. STARS provides a speech generation and a speech recognition module based on the Microsoft Speech API. BENEFITS OF THE PLATFORM

Playing hybrid tabletop games in a ubiquitous computing environment offers potential benefits over traditional board games. Persistency and Game Session Management

STARS game sessions can be interrupted and continued at any time with the current state of a game session being automatically preserved for later continuation. The RF-ID reader unit at the game table assigns game sessions to RFID tags, so that the tags operate like physical bookmarks. This makes session management much more intuitive and natural than GUI-based interfaces. Complex Game Rules

Complex traditional board games such as conflict simulations or role-playing games usually either involve a lot of table reading and dice rolling that hamper game play or they suffer from oversimplified rules to make them more manageable. In STARS, the more complex game rules are put into the digital domain, so that an accurate simulation of the game world can be realized without slowing down the game flow. Dynamic Information Visualization

The interactive table display allows providing the players with dynamic game boards. This includes alterations to the boards at runtime, e.g. a fog-of-war might be lifted when new areas of the board are explored. Also, the presentation of the boards can be automatically adjusted to real-world properties such as the positions and viewing angles of the players. Generic Development Architecture

The STARS software architecture relieves the game developer from many mundane tasks such as device integration or game board management. Thereby, she can concentrate on creating rules and providing content. So far, we have realized a roleplaying game called KnightMage and a Monopoly clone called STARS Monopoly. Both games make use of the heterogeneous device setup, e.g. in KnightMage the wall display shows a public map of the explored game area, while the PDAs are used for inventory management and character attributes. CONCLUSIONS

We have presented the STARS platform for computer augmentend tabletop games. Apart from writing new games for the platform, our next steps will include the integration

of additional input and output devices and the augmentation of single playing pieces with information technology. RELATED WORK

Mandryk et al [2] have developed a computer augmented tabletop game called False Prophets. Similar to STARS, False Prophets’ goal is to combine the strengths of traditional tabletop gaming and computing devices. As in STARS, mobile computers are integrated for private information. However, False Prophets does not attempt to create a general purpose platform for multiple games, but is currently limited to a single exploration game. Björk et al. [1] presented a hybrid game system called Pirates! that does not utilize a dedicated game board, but integrates the entire world around us with players moving in the physical domain and experiencing location dependent games on mobile computers. Thereby, Pirates! follows a very different, but very interesting approach to integrate virtual and physical components in game applications. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank our colleagues Norbert Streitz, Peter Tandler, and Carsten Röcker for their helpful feedback on our work. Also, we especially thank our student staff member Sascha Nau for his dedicated efforts to complete the video realization in time. Parts of this work are supported by a grant from the Ladenburger Kolleg “Living in a smart environment” of the Daimler-Benz foundation. REFERENCES

1. Björk, S, Falk, J., Hansson, R., Ljungstrand, P.: Pirates! Using the Physical World as a Game Board. In: Proceedings of Interact’01, Tokyo, Japan. 2. Mandryk, R.L., Maranan, D.S., Inkpen, K.M.: False Prophets: Exploring Hybrid Board/Video Games. In: Extended Abstracts of CHI’02, 640-641. 3. Magerkurth, C., Stenzel, R.: Computer-Supported Cooperative Play - The Future of The Game Table. (in German). To appear in Proceedings of M&C’03. 4. Streitz, N.A., Tandler, P., Müller-Tomfelde, C., Konomi, S. Roomware: Towards the Next Generation of HumanComputer Interaction based on an Integrated Design of Real and Virtual Worlds. In: J. A. Carroll (Ed.): HumanComputer Interaction in the New Millennium, Addison Wesley, 553-578, 2001. 5. Tandler, P.: Software Infrastructure for a UbiquitousComputing Environment Supporting Collaboration with Multiple Single- and Multi-User Devices. Proceedings of UbiComp'01. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Heidelberg, 96-115, 2001. 6. Weiser, M.: The Computer for the Twenty-First Century. Scientific American, 94-100, 1991.