A User-Oriented Approach to Space-Adaptive Augmentation: The Effects of Spatial Affordance on ...

Summary

The research explores the impact of spatial affordance on narrative experience in an AR detective game, 'Fragments,' developed for Microsoft HoloLens. It investigates how room size and furniture layout affect gameplay and user movement, using traversability and visibility as key factors. The study with 72 participants revealed that large rooms with centered layouts enhance presence but hinder narrative engagement. Design implications suggest optimizing AR narratives by considering spatial features and user movement for an immersive experience.

Takeaways

• 🎓 Jae-eun Shin is a PhD student at KAIST UVR Lab presenting a paper on space-adaptive augmentation in AR games.
• 🕵️‍♂️ The paper discusses 'Fragments', an AR detective game where players find clues in a space-adaptive environment.
• 🌐 The game's goal is to offer compelling storytelling and gameplay in any room through adaptive virtual elements like characters.
• 🤔 The research questions the immersive narrative experience provided by different room types and their spatial features.
• 📏 The study defines factors like traversability and visibility, influenced by room size and layout.
• 🛋️ Six study conditions with different size configurations and furniture layouts were created to test spatial affordances.
• 👥 72 participants played 'Fragments' under these conditions, with various metrics measured post-study.
• 🏠 Presence was significantly higher in large rooms, with an interaction effect for layout on narrative experience.
• 📊 Usability was higher in large rooms, but game enjoyment, workload, and task completion time showed no significant differences.
• 🔍 Movement heatmaps revealed that large rooms with a centered layout had the widest range of movement and most restricted form.
• 👀 Viewing behavior showed disparities between real and augmented spaces, common blind spots, and semantic feature associations.
• 🛠 The study suggests user-oriented design implications for AR narratives, considering spatial affordances and user movement.
• 🔮 Future plans include expanding the study's scope and testing the validity of the derived design implications.

Q & A

What is the title of Jae-eun Shin's research paper?

The title of the research paper is 'A User-Oriented Approach to Space-Adaptive Augmentation: The Effects of Spatial Affordance on Narrative Experience in an Augmented Reality Detective Game.'

What is the name of the Augmented Reality game developed for the Microsoft HoloLens mentioned in the script?

The name of the Augmented Reality game is Fragments.

How does the game Fragments enhance the sense of being in a fictional world?

Fragments enhances the sense of being in a fictional world by adaptively augmenting virtual characters and clues to the surrounding real space, such as having characters lean against real walls or sit on actual sofas.

What are the two main spatial features explored in the research for their impact on narrative experience in Fragments?

The two main spatial features explored in the research are traversability and visibility.

How many study conditions were set up to test the effects of spatial affordance parameters?

There were six study conditions set up, each providing different levels of spatial affordance parameters.

What were the factors measured with post-study questionnaires in the research?

The factors measured with post-study questionnaires were presence, narrative engagement, usability, workload, and game enjoyment.

What was the significant difference found in the presence between large and small rooms?

The presence was significantly higher in large rooms than in small ones, with an interaction effect for layout.

How did the centered layout affect narrative engagement compared to the peripheral and scattered layouts?

Narrative Engagement was significantly lower in the centered layout than in the peripheral and scattered layouts.

What was the impact of room size on usability in the study?

Usability was significantly affected by size, being higher in large rooms than in small ones.

What were the three viewing behavior patterns observed in the study?

The three viewing behavior patterns observed were: 1) a greater disparity between real and augmented space in visually complex scenes, 2) common blind spots in scattered and centered layouts, and 3) participants linking the semantic features of real objects to their role in the augmented game space.

What are the user-oriented design implications derived from the research findings?

The design implications include leveraging adaptive placement of augmentations to complement spaces with low traversibility, removing blind spots from the augmented space, aligning strategies with the core experience a content aims for, and considering the semantic features of the real space.

What is the conclusion of the research regarding space-adaptive augmentations?

The conclusion is that space-adaptive augmentations should reflect the ways in which spatial affordance shapes user movement and perception.

What are the future plans mentioned in the research for further study?

The future plans include expanding the scope of the study and applying the derived design implications to test their validity.

Outlines

00:00

🕵️‍♂️ AR Game Design Research

This paragraph introduces Jae-eun Shin, a PhD student at KAIST UVR Lab, and her research paper on the narrative experience in an AR detective game called Fragments. The game is designed to adaptively augment reality within any room, with virtual characters interacting with real-world objects to enhance immersion. The study aims to explore how room affordances, specifically traversability and visibility, affect the narrative experience. To do this, the researchers set up six different study conditions with varying room sizes and furniture layouts and had 72 participants play the game under these conditions. The study measured presence, narrative engagement, usability, workload, and game enjoyment through questionnaires and tracked task completion time and player positions.

Keywords

💡Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that overlays digital information or images onto the real world, enhancing the user's perception of their environment. In the context of the video, AR is central to the narrative as it is the medium through which the detective game 'Fragments' is played, allowing players to interact with virtual clues and characters within their physical space.

💡Spatial Affordance

Spatial Affordance refers to the possibilities for action suggested by the environment, such as the layout and size of a space influencing how it can be traversed or used. The video discusses how the real spatial features of rooms, particularly traversability and visibility, affect the narrative experience in the AR game, indicating the importance of the physical environment in shaping the gameplay.

💡Narrative Experience

Narrative Experience is the engagement and immersion a user feels within a story, which can be influenced by various factors including the environment and the way the story is presented. The video's research explores how the physical space in which the AR game is played impacts the narrative experience, suggesting that the environment is a key factor in storytelling within AR applications.

💡Traversability

Traversability is the ease with which a space can be moved through or navigated. The script mentions that the size and layout of a room impact the game's traversability, which in turn affects the gameplay and the player's experience, as larger spaces with fewer obstacles allow for more freedom of movement.

💡Visibility

Visibility in this context refers to the extent to which elements within a space can be seen clearly. The research in the video examines how visibility, affected by room size and furniture layout, influences the player's ability to perceive and interact with the game's augmented elements, highlighting its role in the narrative experience.

💡Fragments

Fragments is the name of the AR detective game developed for the Microsoft HoloLens, which serves as the primary subject of the research presented in the video. The game is designed to adaptively place virtual clues and characters within the player's real-world environment, demonstrating the integration of AR technology with physical spaces.

💡User-Oriented Approach

A User-Oriented Approach focuses on designing experiences and systems based on the needs, preferences, and behaviors of the end-users. The video describes this approach in the context of AR game design, emphasizing the importance of understanding how different spatial configurations affect the user's narrative experience and movement within the game.

💡Presence

Presence is the sensation of being in a virtual environment, which is a key aspect of the immersive experience in AR. The video's study measured presence as one of the outcomes, finding that it was significantly higher in large rooms, suggesting that the physical size and layout of the space can enhance the feeling of being present in the game world.

💡Narrative Engagement

Narrative Engagement is the level of involvement and interest a user has in the story of a game or other media. The video discusses how different room layouts affected narrative engagement, with the centered layout scoring lower, indicating that the spatial arrangement can either support or hinder the user's connection to the story.

💡Usability

Usability refers to how easy and efficient a product or system is to use. In the context of the video, usability is measured in terms of how well the game can be played in different spatial configurations, with larger rooms found to be more usable due to increased traversability and visibility.

💡Heatmaps

Heatmaps are visual representations of data that show the density of a variable, such as user movement, within a space. The video uses heatmaps to illustrate the range and patterns of player movement in different room layouts, providing insights into how the physical environment influences gameplay dynamics.

💡Semantic Features

Semantic Features are the meanings or interpretations associated with objects or elements. The video notes that participants linked the semantic features of real-world objects to their roles in the augmented game space, suggesting that the inherent meaning of physical objects can influence how users interact with and perceive the AR environment.

Highlights

Introduction of the research focused on space-adaptive augmentation in an AR detective game using the Microsoft HoloLens.

The game 'Fragments' allows virtual characters to interact with the real-world environment, enhancing immersion.

Research aims to explore how spatial affordance affects narrative experience in an AR game.

The study focused on two key spatial affordances: traversability and visibility, and their impact on gameplay.

Six study conditions were created using different room sizes and furniture layouts to analyze spatial affordance.

72 participants were involved in a between-subject study, playing the first stage of 'Fragments' under different conditions.

Presence was significantly higher in large rooms, with an interaction effect based on the room layout.

Narrative engagement was lower in centered layouts compared to peripheral and scattered layouts.

Usability was higher in large rooms, indicating that space influences user experience.

There was no significant difference in game enjoyment, perceived workload, and task completion time across conditions.

Participants' movement was widest in large rooms with a centered layout, but movement was most restricted within these conditions.

Three viewing behavior patterns were identified, including a greater disparity between real and augmented spaces in complex scenes.

Participants tended to avoid non-functional areas of rooms and linked real objects' features to their augmented roles.

Design implications include strategies to complement spaces with low traversability and remove blind spots in augmented spaces.

Future plans include expanding the study's scope and testing the derived design implications for space-adaptive AR narratives.

Transcripts

Hello, my name is Jae-eun Shin, a PhD student at KAIST UVR Lab

Our paper is titled, 'A User-Oriented Approach to Space-Adaptive Augmentation:

The Effects of Spatial Affordance on Narrative Experience in an Augmented Reality Detective Game.'

This research began with Fragments, an Augmented Reality game developed for the Microsoft HoloLens.

In this game, the player tracks down a kidnapper on the loose by finding clues augmented adaptively to the surrounding space.

You can also see that virtual characters are leaning against a real wall or sitting on an actual sofa,

which all contribute to a heightened sense of being and belonging in a fictional world blended into reality.

With these space-adaptive features, the game's mission is to provide “compelling new possibilities for storytelling

and gameplay in whichever room you play.”

This got us thinking; would whichever room really provide the level of immersive narrative experience the game aspires to?

That is why we decided to explore how affordances configured by real spatial features of various types of rooms,

namely traversability and visibility, affect narrative experience in this game.  

We first wished to learn how traversability and visibility as determined by the size and layout of a room

impact the gameplay.

Second, we sought to observe and analyze how users actually move and perceive

in the adaptive augmented space of the game.

To answer these questions, we defined factors of traversability and visibility.

Next, we set two size configurations and three types of furniture layout for six study conditions

that each provided differing levels of these spatial affordance parameters.

In a between-subject study, 72 participants played the first stage of Fragments in one of the six conditions.

Presence, narrative engagement, usability, workload, and game enjoyment were measured with post-study questionnaires.

Task completion time and the participants’ positions during the game were also recorded. 

The compilation of videos from each study condition shown here will give you a clear picture of

how our study was conducted.

Results show that presence was significantly higher in the large rooms than in the small,

with an interaction effect for layout.

Narrative Engagement was significantly lower in the centered layout than the peripheral and scattered.

Usability was significantly affected by size, it being higher in the large than the small.

On the other hand, there was no significant difference across all conditions

for game enjoyment, perceived workload, and task completion time.

Regarding movement, the heatmaps showed that in the large rooms,

the range of movement was widest in the centered layout.

In both size conditions, the form of movement as represented by the accumulated trajectories

was also most restricted in the centered.

In addition, participants generally chose not to venture out to the outermost, non-functioning areas of the rooms. 

For viewing behavior, we found three patterns.

First, participants felt a greater disparity between the real space and the augmented space

when the game scene was more visually complex.

Second, common blind spots were found in the scattered and centered layouts,

whose locations are shown in the figures.

Third, they tended to link the semantic features of the real objects to their role in the augmented game space. 

We believe presence was highest in the large-centered condition on account of the fact it afforded the widest range of movement

in the most restricted form, allowing more exposure to and control over one’s physical activities.

On the other hand, we posit that the same condition was unfavorable for narrative engagement

because constant shifts in user position and viewpoint, along with blind spots,

hindered users from creating a cohesive narrative thread from the clues dispersed in space.

We also assume that a large space was beneficial for usability as it afforded more movable and viewable distance. 

We derived user-oriented design implications for space-adaptive AR narratives.

First, the adaptive placement of augmentations should be leveraged to complement spaces with low traversibility,

such as clusterizing augmented objects to secure an unobstructed trajectory.

Second, blind spots such as space behind the furniture should be removed from the augmented space.

Third, these strategies should align with the core experience a content aims for,

as tradeoffs between factors of narrative experience occur.

Finally, the semantic features of the real space should also be considered. 

We conclude that space-adaptive augmentations should reflect the ways in which spatial affordance

shapes user movement and perception. 

In the future, we plan to expand the scope of our study and apply our design implications to test their validity. 

Thank you for listening, and please refer to our paper for more details.