Next generation gaming

As there is natural evolution of gaming towards simpler and more ergonomically viable solutions I think the eventual shift of gaming would be towards mind controlled games.

As “Alice in wonderland “as it sounds the existing development in technology and the fact that user experience and ergonomics are an essential in any game design process now only helps build this theory.

Gaming is like a system (totally speaking my head out) and system is a product of interaction between macro and micro elements in it. In Gaming the micro elements are:

Gameplay, game story, game concept etc which may remain the same through generations but it’s the macro elements which will affect the next gen gaming. And the elements which form the macro elements are:

User controls, interaction patterns and perception/ visual design.

The success of consoles like Nintendo Wii, Wii fit, Ds is a natural evolution process for species called “casual gamers”. These games juxtapose to natural physical behavior of humans. Features like less complexity in handling controls, combining human body mechanics with game mechanics (wii fit); mapping eye movements with camera angles are such examples.

As these consoles form a part of present generation gaming I think that by extrapolating the technologies today we can imagine what next generation gaming will be like.

As I said earlier gaming is a system and the micro elements form the core of it. But it’s the macro elements which will be affected from the technology adaptation.

Features like augmented reality, Brain mapping, movement recognition, multi touch, speech recognition and eye tracking should form an inevitable form of future game designing.

In fact if game producers can realize this by researching and exploring more into the casual game genre, designers would be able to make accommodations for future. In an adapted version of the Harry Potter video game, players lift boulders and throw lightning bolts using only their minds. Just as physical movement changed the interface of gaming with Nintendo’s Wii, the power of the mind may be the next big thing in video games.

The sensory features are the design elements for next generation gaming.

Vision (already exploited enough and well exploited in fact in games so far)

Voice and Sound (Voice response systems employed in games like End war)

Touch (not just touch screen… more)

Smell (what if I could feel the fragrance while playing flowers)

Coming to the practical accepts of above suggestions the following is the status report of these technologies:

Mind Controls:

Emotiv, a company based in San Francisco, says its mind-control headsets will be on shelves later this year, along with a host of novel “biofeedback” games developed by its partners.

Several other companies – including EmSense in Monterey, California; NeuroSky in San Jose, California; and Hitachi in Tokyo – are also developing technology to detect players´ brainwaves and use them in next-gen video games.

The technology is based on medical technology that has been around for decades. Using a combination of EEGs (which reveal alpha waves that signify calmness), EMGs (which measure muscle movement), and ECGs and GSR (which measure heart rate and sweating), developers hope to create a picture of a player´s mental and physical state. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which monitors changes in blood oxygenation, could also be incorporated since it overcomes some of the interference problems with EEGs.

In order for mind gaming to attract consumers, developers know they need to offer more than just interesting technology. Earlier biofeedback games – such as Atari´s MinkLink in 1984 and AmTex´s Bio Tetris in 1998 – never took off, possibly because they used old games. This time, developers plan to design novel games that can only be played with mind control complementing a traditional handset – similar to the novel sports games custom-designed for the Wii.

Motion Detection:

User gets to wave his hands and see stuff happening and it's a lot more engaging then hitting keys on keyboard.
The tapping of a whole new public which means we can play with for instance my mom, who would otherwise stay miles away from the complex x box controls.

Multi touch:

Since the introduction of Microsoft surface a lot of development has come in the field of multi touch based interaction Its been used in restaurants for billing, in music shows by DJs and of course in gaming . One such example is Warcraft developed by Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL). This interactive multi-input panel allows users to control such games as Warcraft III with "an array of antennas embedded in the touch surface".

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O1bTNbbWk4&eurl=http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/warcraft-iii-multi-touch-panel

Smell:

As geeky as it sounds this is for real. It would be so much fun for the kids who are playing animal crossing to be asked to pick flowers based on their fragrance. The technology that supports this feature is called Smell- O – Vision. Of course there is long way to go for this to be called working, but definitely gaming provides a suitable platform for this to be adopted.

The history of Smell – o – vision is that this system released odors during the projection of a film in Japan so that the viewer could "smell" what was happening in the movie.

The technique was created by Hans Laube and made its only appearance in the 1960 film Scent of Mystery. The process injected 30 different smells into a movie theater's seats when triggered by the film's soundtrack. (Source: Wikipedia)

Wouldn’t Prince of Persia love it if he could use the strength of his mind to look through Ariman’s evil black magic? And yell out to Elika for help (user screaming his lungs out)

Would taking over an upsurge in COD be a lot more realistic if I could really walk into these jungles and pick weapons from dead soldiers (and I mean PICK!!). Whatever the next generation gaming beholds is yet to be seen, but it’s definitely a good move if we designers could approach a design process which involves Humans as primary audience than just gamers. It means that the playing field is leveled for everyone be it young, old, man, woman, George Bush, etc. because everyone can make natural movements to do stuff.

Kindly provide feedbacks on my view points.

References:

Billycuts on March 17, 2008 in

Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Futurism/Transhumanism, Games and Technology

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/warcraft-iii-multi-touch-panel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-o-vision

From Reel to Real - By Vaijayanthi Iyengar

In 1980s all housewives who had the luxury of possessing a television set got together to watch India’s first soap Hum Log. Two decades later the small screen is no longer small. It has metamorphosed into a national obsession. So a media that is cutting across demographic, geographic and social barriers is bound to have its impact on its biggest audience

The women of India

“What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish. “ W. H. Auden Small screen TV in India is covering about 60 million viewers around the country. This particular study looks at the impact of small screen television on women. How does the media manipulate and manufacture consent of women. In this presentation we look at women and men from various strata of society, different age groups , and educational back grounds. What comes as an inference from this study is the impact TV has on women of today. This presentation attempts to highlight on the responsibility of media on this aspiring and ambitious population. Television can’t just show and tell. It has to show, tell and patronize.

Objective of this study

To find out about the impact of small screen television in daily lives of women.
Women were interviewed to form a perspective on the following issues
•Changes/ impact in physique and grooming due to TV viewing
•Change in socio cultural acceptance / behavior
•Views on equality
•Monitory impact on budgets due to television
Men were interviewed to form a perspective on the following issues
•Acceptance of opposite sex based on changes in physique and grooming
•socio cultural acceptance / behavior
•Views on equality
•Counter effects of equality.

Question:
Which is your favorite serial? What is its cultural and social impact?

Inference:
Geeta has a fairly good idea of the story line. She also says how whole of her village enjoys watching the serial as well as is emotionally attached to it.
Her family is concerned about the dresses worn by women in certain serials.


Question:
Who is your favorite character in the serials and why?



Inference:
Bhavani is impressed by the bold concept of living in being introduced in India
But is not comfortable with the thought of practicing it personally.
The serial as well treads safely on the lines of “ethics” by avoiding any instance of
Physical intimacy between the couple, under one roof.

Question:
Are women an equivalent in professional places today, and has their grooming after watching the serials made any difference?

Inference:
Mr.Catakam Kumar, Vice Chairman says Women seem to be a better choice for Marketing jobs where in interaction with varied people is required. He also seemed to have noticed growing confidence and leadership skills among women in factories and workshop work spaces.


Question:
How is the equality Mantra effecting you. Comment

Inference:
When it comes to gender justice , its not only women who are complaining. Sometimes the equality mantra is propagated too much in media, then the society, that it fails to strike a balance. Hari gives statistical data on how he feels its not a one way struggle.


Question:
Impact on adolescent age group of girls. Comment

Mrs. Priya Kumar, 45, a faculty in Vana Vani School , Guidy admitted that young girls are definitely more conscious about their looks and figure compared to students five years ago. She said the Hindi serials focuses more on make up and costumes which seem to have a unique USP over her choice for Tamil serials.
Also, Miss. Swathi the head beautician of Naturals Abhiramapuram agrees that more and more younger girls walk in with mentioning name of serials to groom themselves. Over 20 per cent of client turnover in cosmetic surgery and beauty clinics is the age group between 12 and 16 years.

Question:
What do you think the serials portray about relationships?

Inference:
Bhavani is not too pleased about the fact that the serials dwell on topics like an hiding the existence of an illegitimate child . The justifications offered in serial are circumstantial which does not convince this particular viewer.

Conclusion

The desire to look and feel good is stronger now. Einstein could have needed an image makeover to prove his theory to the world today. Both men and women have disassociated with the cliché idea of unkempt look equals hyper intelligence.
As much as it has made them aware of the importance of personal grooming other social systems like marriage , education are eminently negotiable.
A long time spent on watching serials is effecting their cognition. This also in turn effects merchandising , social tolerance and economical trends.

I express my thanks to employees of E- Mantras, Abhiramapuram for their moral and material support.
I also extend my thanks to Mr. Aditya Kelkar and Mr. Johannes Mirreci for their invaluable help.

the inferences and conclusions drawn in this study are entirely my own opinion.No offense to people witj contarary views intended.

thanks

i conclude with my painting of bold indian woman as i perceive her.

Mapping the Urban transition through cartography

A map is a graphic representation or scale model of spatial concepts. The art and science of Map making is called cartography. In the Information and Digital Design Project "Mapping the Old City of Ahmedabad through Cartography", maps dating from 1411 th century AD to Present day Sabarmati River Front Project have been analyzed and interpreted.

The Process followed is explained in the following diagram



Research with help of inputs from Ar. Yatin Pandiya (Sangath) , Debashish Naik ( Sanskar Kendra ) and the Mahajans in old City. An interactive system was found to exist between elements like Events , administration, religion, culture, trade and urban development. This was mapped on a timeline as follows.


The media used for information visualization, is a 10 minute animated film. This Film is a narrative on City Growth mapped on a timeline. Also further explorations are being done, to develop this information in an interactive interface, like a website or a kiosk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKzWSTwk34c

2 Assignments: Google Analytics and U.N.E.S.C.O. Stats.

Due to some trouble I faced in submitting my assignments, I've ended up making a webpage and have uploaded it at:

http://geocities.com/namanthakar

The homepage contains 5 subpages. I am sorry for the inconvinience, if this causes any.

Thank you,
Naman Thakar
iDD NiD

proposed information visualization of Google Analytics

One of the assignments that we had during Prof. M. P. Ranjan course was to do a study Google Analytics and then re-design the data visualization of the information.



During my study of this site, I found several shortcomings that if integrated with Google Analytics, would not only improve the user’s understanding but would also enhance analytics performance.

The following are some of the short comings of Google Analytics:
• There is a lack of integration with one’s website. Thus, it seems like Google Analytics is a standalone analytics engine where, the user will be forced to log onto Google Analytics each time he wants to check statistics etc.
• A regular user of Google Analytics gets no insight of the place from where the website or the ‘hit’ is registered. This feature if included will help the user customize his target area study and analysis, thereby improving his products and services.
• Google Analytics currently provides a single colored monotonous map which lacks topographical detail
• Finally, Google Analytics provide no statistical data about the place from which a ‘hit’ is registered. The problem with this is that one cannot make a proper comparison. For e.g. 500 hits from Delhi cannot be compared to 500 hits from Bhopal because statistics of both places are different in terms of population, age, actual internet users, etc.


I have tried to make some changes to the visualization of the maps. First of all, I overlaid the population map of India with the India map on Google Analytics. Thus, while the hit areas or dots remain the same, it is easier to get a more accurate overview of the data. The purpose of this overlay also will help the user understand the percentage of people in a place who are interested in the website.


Google Analytics integrated with population map of India





Google Analytics integrated with per capita income map of India




I, also, did a similar overlay with the per capita income map of India. Doing this overlay will help the user understand the strata of society that he is catering to.
To end with, I have done an overlay with the climatic map of India. While at first sight, it may not seem a necessity, climate determines the way a lot of things work, such as agriculture, clothing etc. With such overlays, Google Analytics ‘ analysis and comparison of registered hits will be more accurate and efficient, thereby benefiting not only Google Analytics, but also the users of Google Analytics.


Google Analytics integrated with climatic map of India

UNESCO statistical report on annual attendance

DATA ANALYSIS

UNESCO has provided data under different catagories on film and cinema for various countries. From this catagorization I narrowed my focus to five major countries, India included, and the annual attendance to cinemas in these countries.
Below is the table of data for the year 1995 which I have chosen to do my data visualization on.
the above data is calculated on the basis
of ticket sold per year for a cinema hall. this constitues of all the movable and un-movable settlement.

Annual attendence Year 1995

China 0.13 billion
U.S.A 1.26 billion
India 3.38 billion
U.K 0.11 billion
France 0.13 billion





CONCEPT DEVELOPEMENT
I wanted to represent the data in a visual manner that would allow easy understanding and quick viewing of the data.
So, I came up with the concept of a ticket marquee. In this concept, I put up different counters for the various countries chosen. At this time, I also wanted to represent visually the annual attendance of the countries in question.
Hence each counter had a queue of the people, representing the country and the annual attendance.
I wanted to make this interactive and offered the option of zoom tool that would help the user to get a closer view of the data.

Data Visualisation of Information as published by UNESCO

As part of our second assignment, we were asked to do a data visualisation of information collected and published by the UNESCO. On visiting the website, I found that all the information was represented in a very dry and boring manner. Compiling all this information and presenting it in a new way seemed like a good challenge. There were several categories under which information was collected such as Culture and Communication, Science and Technology etc. I chose to do my visualisation on Culture and Communication > Public Libraries. The reason for this was that while it is not very often one hears of people visiting public libraries, the data collected seemed to suggest otherwise. This brought about a change in my perspective of libraries and was very refreshing.

Having studied the data collected from around the world over several years, I decided to categorize the data according to countries in a continent (for example : Europe consisting of France, germany, Estonia etc.) This categorisation helped me eliminate the coutries with insufficient data, thereby narrowing my area of study. After this, I decided to put the countries on a yearline. This allowed for the possibility of comparing the highs and lows of different countries within a continent along the same year. Similarly, one can make a comparision of the same with countries of other continents (colour coded differently). The image on the left shows information from Asia (Orange histogram) and Europe (green Histogram) in 1996. When looked at closely, one finds circles marked along the histogram, depicting the countries within these continents. I have tried to make this visual interactive and easy to compare. The following is a simulation of the same.

Having come this far into the assignment, I figured that I could do a little more exploration on the subject. In this second iteration, I assembled the data on Audio Visual Documents and Book Volumes for one country - Estonia. I made simple and obvious visual representations of the above. However, at this point, I realised that Estonia had had a steady and uniform increase in its collection of audio visual material and book volumes. Furthermore, data for book volumes was in the range of 10 million. Hence on the bookshelf illustration, I added the "10,000,000 books" label and at the top of the shelf, I simply stacked a book to represent each year's growth. Booksmarks were added to show the year of data's study. Beside the shelf, I placed a CD to represent the audio-visual documents. Here again, the increase in the library accquistion of such documents was moreorless uniform. So I depicted this growth by the use of equal concentric circles, one for each year and in the same colour as the books. I even added a legend on the side to reinforce this idea. The following video is a simulation of the above explained idea.