Orchestrating a Mixed Reality Game On the Ground Mixed Reality Laboratory Andy Crabtree, Steve Benfo

1
Orchestrating a Mixed Reality Game On the
GroundMixed Reality LaboratoryAndy Crabtree,
Steve Benford, Tom Rodden, Chris Greenhalgh,
Martin Flintham, Rob Anastasi, Adam Drozd Blast
TheoryMatt Adams, Ju Row-Farr and Nick
Tandavanitj University College LondonAnthony
Steed
2
Can You See Me Now?

• Brief overview of the playing of mobile, mixed
  reality game
• Report features
• Challenge of further developing a mixed reality
  game
• Addressing the challenge ethnographic study of
  the orchestration of a mixed reality game on the
  ground
• Consideration of the design implications to
  emerge from the study

3
Challenge of Mixed Reality Gaming

• Orchestrating game play
• Traditional focus control room
• More recent trend work on the ground
• Salient due to perceived problems of scale
• Need to decentralise orchestration
• But what kind of support do participants require
  to orchestrate their work on the ground?

4
Addressing the Challenge

• Learning from practice
• Ethnography (just a data gathering method)
• Ethnomethodology (a way of analysing data)
• Vulgar work of the streets (analytic focus)
• The ordinary work of a setting (video)
• The ordinary competences that participants
  routinely and methodically exercise to concert or
  orchestrate their activities
• Concerted practices for making the technology
  work

5
The Technology

• Can You See Me Now?
• A game of chase in both real and virtual space
• Up to 15 online players simultaneously logged on
  over the Internet
• Chased through a virtual model of a citys
  streets by 4 runners located on the real city
  streets
• Location-based capture (5 metres)
• Exploits a 3D virtual model, handheld computers,
  GPS, WiFi (802.11b) wireless local area network

6
The Online Players View

• The 3D model
• Map view
• Birds eye view
• Ground-level view

7
The Runners View

• Handheld Computer (zoom in, zoom out views)
• Information (GPS accuracy, connectivity, number
  of players)
• Focus on how the runners make the technology work
  on the ground

8
The Vulgar Work of the Streets (1)

• Map Reading and Orienteering
• In order to play the game the virtual has to be
  situated in the real world
• This is a practical achievement

• The achievement consists of
• Exploiting ordinary map reading competences to
  align the abstract with the concrete
• Coordinating positions between real and virtual
  to plot an intercept trajectory
• Updating coordinates to maintain a fix on the the
  target
• And doing all this while managing the hazards of
  the street

9
The Vulgar Work of the Streets (2)

• Tracking Players Down
• Managing the vicissitudes of a moving target and
  a variable virtual gap
• Doing so by 1) dancing around

10
The Vulgar Work of the Streets (3)

• Tracking players down
• By 2) sweeping the streets

JASPER Hi Vesper VESPER Runner 2 is
ahead JASPER Runner 2 on the move VESPER Better
get moving JASPER Im outta here LANDO Where
are the runners? VESPER Wait for me!! JASPER
All right VESPER Gather at Los Palmas everyone
11
The Vulgar Work of the Streets (4)

• Tracking Players Down
• By 3) Sweeping collaboratively

12
The Vulgar Work of the Streets (5)

• Working with Constant Interruption
• An irremediable feature of using the technology
• Main sources of trouble
• GPS availability and position of satellites
  over game period
• WiFi coverage buildings and blackspots
• Also
• Server problems
• Equipment antennae's coming lose, etc.
• These interruptions did not stop the game being
  played, however

13
The Vulgar Work of the Streets (6)

• Working with Constant Interruption
• Instead, interruptions were managed in situ
• How?
• 1) Working knowledge of the technology
• 2) Local knowledge of the gameplay environment
• Combine, through articulation, to form a common
  stock of knowledge

14
The Vulgar Work of the Streets (7)

• Managing Interruptions
• Problem interruptions are contingent
• Which means that the common stock of knowledge is
  dynamic
• So, not always sure what an appropriate solution
  might be
• Strategy for working out what the problem is and
  what to do next diagnostic work

15
The Vulgar Work of the Streets (8)

• Diagnostic Work
• In addition to exploiting the common stock of
  knowledge, checking status of other runners
• Three ways
• 1) Indirectly (via walkie-talkies)

16
The Vulgar Work of the Streets (9)

• Diagnostic Work
• 2) Directly (face-to-face)
• 3) Surreptitious monitoring

17
The Vulgar Work of the Streets (10)

• The Purpose of Diagnostic Work
• Establishing the scope of interruptions
• Is it local i.e., of my personal kit?
• Or is it global i.e., of the games
  infrastructure?
• Answering that question furnishes the runner with
  a sense of what it is appropriate to do next to
  repair the interruption (e.g., move to better
  location, wait for an update, restart the
  handheld computer, or wait for the game as a
  whole to be restarted)

18
Implications for Design (1)

• Augmenting the common stock of knowledge and
  supporting diagnostic work
• Colour maps of good and bad areas (GPS and
  WiFi)
• Knowing status of other runners (distributing
  situational awareness walkie-talkie channels,
  connectivity status, GPS strength, etc.)

Visualizing real-time GPS availability -
areas of likely good GPS (with line or sight to
three or more satellites) are shaded white. Areas
of likely poor GPS (line of sight to less than
three satellites) are shaded grey.
19
Implications for Design (2)

• Technical details in paper - sorry, Im just an
  ethnographer ?
• Broader implications
• ground workers using GPS technologies in a
  variety of settings (e.g., fire fighting, search
  and rescue, military operations, etc.) are just
  as likely to encounter interruptions caused by
  satellite availability and network coverage as
  the runners in our game and, likewise, are just
  as likely to have to engage in diagnostic work to
  work out the nature of the interruptions they are
  experiencing and make appropriate decisions to
  handle those interruptions

20
THE END