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Covering...<br />SIDE A:<br />&gt; A Brief History of Video Games<br />SIDE B:<br />&gt; Serious Games<br />&gt; My Work at University of Ulster, Coleraine<br />

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What is a Serious Game?<br />A game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment.<br />Can be any sector: medicine, education, military, exercise, business.<br />May be a simulation with the look and feel of a game or using game engines or virtual reality.<br />

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What Can Game Tech Be Used For?<br />Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)<br />Video Unavailable - Difede et al. &quot;Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for World Trade Center Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: A Case Report&quot; Cyberpsychology & Behavior 5(6) 2002<br />

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What Can Game Tech Be Used For?<br />Triage Training<br />Trusim (Division of Blitz Games) – “Triage Trainer” (Prototype) - http://www.trusim.com/<br />

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What Can Game Tech Be Used For?<br />Re-Mission (HopeLab)<br />Kids can learn & fightagainst cancer.<br />Hopelab – “Re-mission” - http://www.hopelab.org/<br />

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What Can Game Tech Be Used For?<br />Phobias<br />Rothbaum et al., 2001<br />Images courtesy of Albert ‘Skip’ Rizzo<br />

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What Can Game Tech Be Used For?<br />Business Process Management<br />IBM – “Innov8” - http://www-01.ibm.com/software/solutions/soa/innov8/index.html<br />

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What Can Game Tech Be Used For?<br />Education<br />Sonica Spanish<br />Brain Training (DS)<br />Alphabet Circus (PS2)<br />Spelling Challenges (DS/PSP)<br />

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Why Use Games For Serious Purposes?<br />Engage<br />Fun means they may even forget they are learning or training!<br />Motivate<br />Maintaining motivation is important for persistent training.<br />Encourage<br />Handle failure conservatively – don’t dishearten but instead encourage with positive feedback.<br />

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Why Use Games For Serious Purposes?<br />Reward reached goals. <br />Long-term goals can encourage replayability.<br />Challenge the player at their level.<br />Too easy = boring!<br />Too difficult = frustrating!<br />Personalised & tailored experience.<br />Provide a player with meaningful feedback (visual, audio, haptic).<br />

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Why Use Games For Serious Purposes?<br />Because everyone likes to play.<br />“[Play is] a free activity standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life as being ‘not serious’, but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly.”(Huizinga, J. “Homo Ludens”, 1938)<br />Because games are fun.<br />Fun is the act of mastering a problem mentally.<br />Our brains crave new patterns to absorb. Good games feed us those patterns and our body rewards us with the feeling of fun. If we are no longer being fed new patterns, we become bored.<br />“That’s what games are in the end. Teachers. Fun is just another word for learning.”(RaphKoster, “Theory of Fun”, 2004)<br />

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What Technology Can Be Used?<br />Virtual Reality<br />e.g. Electromagnetic sensors, data-gloves & head mounted displays.<br />Expensive, cumbersome, specialist, require expertise.<br />Webcams / Imaging<br />Visual tracking of a player’s movements.<br />Controllers<br />Haptic devices, e.g. Falcon.<br />Joysticks.<br />Custom-built controllers.<br />

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What Technology Can Be Used?<br />Metaplace<br />Custom-built (D.I.Y.)<br />Open Worlds<br />Second Life, Metaplace, etc.<br />Game Engines<br />E.g. Unreal engine, Source, Quest3D, Unity3D.<br />Unity3D<br />

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My Work at University of Ulster, Coleraine<br />Games for Stroke Rehabilitation<br />The Problem: Stroke therapy is typically intensive, repetitive and boring, and thus difficult to maintain patient motivation.<br />Proposed Solution: Games may be effective in motivating a patient by optimising engagement.<br />Low-cost equipment gives opportunity for home rehabilitation.<br />Following on from previous group work with Virtual Reality 3D games.<br />

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Previous Work at University of Ulster, Coleraine<br />Virtual Reality 3D Games<br />

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My Work at University of Ulster, Coleraine<br />Webcam Games for Stroke Rehabilitation<br />Simple 2D games which use a webcam image as input.<br />Game library where all games share patient profile.<br />Games adapt to player ability dynamically.<br />Played with coloured gloves or any single coloured object.<br />No attaching of wires required – untethered movement.<br />Games can be played standing up or seated.<br />Potential for home rehabilitation.<br />No expertise required.<br />

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Video of UUC Stroke Rehabilitation Games:<br />http://www.vimeo.com/4279126<br />

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Thank You for Listening!<br />James Burke<br />PhD Candidate<br />University of Ulster, Coleraine<br />@Burkazoid<br />james@burkazoid.com<br />www.burkazoid.com<br />