News

We are very excited to have 21 submissions accepted at CHI 2014, the premier conference in human-computer interaction, to be held at Toronto, Canada.

We have 4 full papers, 4 interactivities, 2 workshop organizations, 1 student game competition, 1 special interest group organization, 1 panel, 1 videoshowcase and 7 workshop submissions. Congratulations to everyone who did such a great job in getting the word out about the great work done in the Exertion Games Lab!

Garner, J., Wood, G., Pijnappel, S., Murer, M., Mueller, F. 2014. i-dentity: Innominate Movement Representation as Engaging Game Element. CHI 2014. Long paper. 10 pages. 30 sec preview video. Video.

Khot, R., Hjort, L., Mueller, F. 2014. Understanding Physical Activity through 3D Printed Material Artifacts. CHI 2014. Long paper. 10 pages. 30 sec preview video. Video.

Mueller, F., Gibbs, M.R., Vetere, F., Edge, D. 2014. Supporting the Creative Game Design Process with Exertion Cards. CHI 2014. Long paper. 10 pages. 30 sec preview video.

Mueller, F., Isbister, K. 2014. Movement-Based Game Guidelines. CHI 2014. Long paper. 10 pages. 30 sec preview video.

Walmink, W., Chatham, A., Mueller, F. 2014. Interaction Opportunities Around Helmet Design. CHI 2014. Interactivity. 4 pages. 30 sec preview video. Video.

Garner, J., Wood, G., Pijnappel, S., Murer, M., Mueller, F. 2014. i-dentity: Innominate Representation as Engaging Movement Game Element. CHI 2014. Interactivity. 4 pages. Video.

Khot, R., Lee, J., Munz, H., Aggarwal, D., Mueller, F. 2014. TastyBeats: Making Mocktails with Heart Beats. CHI 2014. Interactivity. 4 pages. 30 sec preview video. Video.

Sargeant, B., Mueller, F. 2014. How Far is UP? Encouraging Social Interaction Through Children’s Book App Design. CHI 2014. Interactivity. 4 pages.

Garner, J., Wood, G. 2014. i-dentity: Concealing Movement Representation Associations in Games. CHI 2014. Student Game Competition. 4 pages. FINALIST.

Mueller, F., Marshall, J., Khot, R., Nylander, S., Tholander, J. 2014. Jogging with Technology: Interaction Design Supporting Sport Activities. Special Interest Group (organizing). 4 pages.

Mentis, H., Höök, K., Mueller, F., Isbister, K., Khut, G.P., Robertson, T. 2014. Designing for the Experiential Body. CHI 2014. Panel. 5 pages. Video.

Khot, R., Lee, J., Hjorth, L., Mueller, F. 2014. SweatAtoms: Understanding Physical Activity through Material Artifacts. CHI 2014. Videoshowcase. 1 page. Video.

Nylander, S., Tholander, J., Mueller, F., Marshall, J. 2014. HCI and Sports. CHI 2014. Workshop (organizing). 4 pages.

Deen, M., Cercos, R., Chatham, A., Naseem, A., Fowler, A., Bernhaupt, R., Schouten, B., Mueller, F. 2014. CHI 2014 Game Jam [4Research]: Game Jams as a Research Tool. CHI 2014. Workshop (organizing). 4 pages.

Byrne, R. 2014. Game Jam 4 Research. CHI 2014. Workshop submission for Game Jam [4Research] workshop. 4 pages.

Garner, J. 2014. Design for Digital, Physical, Social Play. CHI 2014. Workshop submission for Game Jam [4Research] workshop. 4 pages.

Goddard, W. 2014. Issues and Opportunities Facing Game Jams for Design Research. CHI 2014. Workshop submission for Game Jam [4Research] workshop. 4 pages.

Segura, E. 2014. Jamming and researching the Play BOOST framework. CHI 2014. Workshop submission for Game Jam [4Research] workshop. 4 pages.

Toprak, C. 2014. Game Jams: A Method for Starting, Working On and Completing Games. CHI 2014. Workshop submission for Game Jam [4Research] workshop. 4 pages.

Andres, J. 2014. The Lights Track. CHI 2014. Workshop submission for HCI and Sports workshop. 4 pages.

Khot, R., Hjorth, L., Aggarwal, D., Mueller, F. 2014. Supporting Autonomy in Physical Activity through Material Artifacts. CHI 2014. Workshop submission for Positive Computing workshop. 4 pages.

Eelke and Ruth gave a talk each at the Disability Sport & Recreation Festival at Federation Square, Melbourne. The festival promotes healthy, active lifestyles through accessible and inclusive sport and recreation and is Victoria’s premier event for the disability sport and recreation sector, taking place annually in Melbourne

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Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller co-authored a paper on dance gaming with Miko Charbonneau (who did most of the work), who recently graduated with a PhD on the topic and is now at Microsoft Studios. The paper has been accepted at Foundations of Digital Games 2014:

• Charbonneau, E., Buchanan, S., Bott, J., Mueller, F., LaViola, J. 2014. Dance Enhanced: Investigating How Earning Content Through Exertion Impacts Dance Game Enjoyment. Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) 2014. 8 pages.

Our 3 presentations at TEI 2014, the International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction, were a big success, with many people applauding our presentation style:

Displaying Heart Rate Data on a Bicycle Helmet to Support Social Exertion Experiences

Associated paper.

Designing Interactive Technology for Skateboarding

Associated paper.  Video shown during presentation.

Designing Mediated Combat Play

Associated paper. Video shown during presentation.

We are very happy to announce that we have 4 full papers accepted at CHI 2014, to be held in Toronto, Canada. CHI is the top conference in the field of human-computer interaction and this year’s acceptance rate for full papers was 23%. Having 4 papers accepted is a significant achievement, confirming our status as one of the top game research labs in Australia.

We have a new book chapter out called “Technologies in Exertion Games” in the Routledge Handbook of Sports Technology and Engineering:

Mueller, F. 2013. Technologies in Exertion Games. Book chapter in Fuss, F., Subic, A., Strangwood, M. and Mehta, R. Routledge Handbook of Sports Technology and Engineering, Routledge, p. 94-108.

Amani and Chad were on the radio:

Amani: http://rrrfm.libsyn.com/byte-into-it-13-november-2013

Sarah Jane Pell gave another keynote address at the Microwave International New Media Arts Festival in Hong Kong on 2 November 2013.

3 of our latest presentations (2x Ubicomp, 1x DiGRA) are now online:

Understanding a Socially Awkward Digital Play Journey. Digra 2013. By Amy:

Musical Embrace: Exploring Social Awkwardness in Digital Games. Ubicomp 2013. Again by Amy:

Adding an Interactive Display to a Public Basketball Hoop can Motivate Players and Foster Community. Ubicomp 2013. By Alan:

Our 6 papers presented at Interactive Entertainment are available in the ACM Digital Library now and on our publications page:

Garner, J., Wood, G., Pijnappel, S., Murer, M., Mueller, F. 2013. Combining Moving Bodies With Digital Elements: Design Space Between Players and Screens. Interactive Entertainment: IE 2013. 10 pages. Video.

Pell, S., Mueller, F. 2013. Designing for Depth: Underwater Play. Interactive Entertainment: IE 2013. 6 pages. Video

Mueller, F., Walmink, W. 2013. Duel Reality: A Sword-Fighting Game For Novel Gameplay Around Intentionally Hiding Body Data. Interactive Entertainment: IE 2013. 5 pages. Video.

Mueller, F., Gibbs, M.R., Vetere, F. 2013. Reflections on Designing Networked Exertion Games. Interactive Entertainment: IE 2013. 8 pages.

Khot, R., Mueller, F., Hjort, L. 2013. SweatAtoms: Materializing Physical Activity. Interactive Entertainment: IE 2013. 7 pages. Video.

Cercos, R., Mueller, F. 2013. Watch your Steps: Designing a Semi-Public Display to Promote Physical Activity. Interactive Entertainment: IE 2013. 6 pages.

Sebastiaan and Wouter and all helpers have another success story: 3 full papers are accepted (acceptance rate was 27%) at TEI 2014, the International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction, to be presented next year in Munich, Germany. Congratulations!

The papers are now available on the publications page:

Walmink, W., Wilde, D., Mueller, F. 2014. Displaying Heart Rate Data on a Bicycle Helmet to Support Social Exertion Experiences. International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction: TEI 2014. 8 pages.

Pijnappel, S., Mueller, F. 2014. Designing Interactive Technology for Skateboarding. International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction: TEI 2014. 8 pages. Video.

Mueller, F., Gibbs, M.R., Vetere, F., Agamanolis, S., Edge, D. 2014. Designing Mediated Combat Play. International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction: TEI 2014. 8 pages. Video.

Sarah’s keynote at Smartgeometry 2013 in London, UK. Smartgeometry is the world’s premier event focused on computational and parametric design tools, technologies, and methodologies that allow and encourage new forms of architectural and structural expression.

Amy, Chet and Jayden together with Chad and Alan got their new Musical Embrace work accepted to Digra, and Amy will present it in Atlanta, USA:

Huggard, A., De Mel, A., Garner, J., Toprak, C., Chatham, A., Mueller, F. 2013. Understanding a Socially Awkward Digital Play Journey. Digra 2013. Full paper. 11 pages. Video.

We are particularly looking for candidates interested in a) promoting more walking activity during the day or b) supporting extreme sports with digital play technology (see our skateboarding project http://exertiongameslab.org/projects/copy-paste-skate).

Chad was invited to give a talk at “w00t”, the Copenhagen Play Festival in Denmark, on his research work on play in changing spaces:

Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller is giving a talk on “Bodily Digital Play” in the Digital Interventions seminar series on 24 July 2013, 4pm, in the Design Research Institute: “DIGITAL INTERVENTIONS explores how digital media, methods and practice are participating in contemporary and emergent processes of change.” Details here.

Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller speaks on a panel at PAX Australia, on “Videogames are Good For You (and other ridiculous ideas)” organized by our friends from the Young and Well CRC. If you like the indie games at PAX, you’ll love the games at Hovergarden the next day, Monday, 22 July 2013.

Chad presented his Cart-Load-O-Fun public transport game in Sydney, Australia, on the train as part of CUSP’s design exhibition at the Casula Powerhouse, run by the Australian Design Centre and supported by the Australian Government and the Sydney train authority. A nice write-up is here.

We are on the RMIT homepage (again), this time with our success at CHI: “Work from RMIT University’s Exertion Games Lab has been featured widely in a prestigious conference in Paris.” rmit.edu.au (direct link)