It uses ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) which is a handheld information device that is equipped with a variety of sensors, capable of motion detection. GPS and inertial sensors are used for detecting position and orientation of the players (see Figure 4.9). One UMPC is used by the players to navigate through the city and find their target locations while second UMPC provide lens to view various time periods.
In contrast to Human PacMan, it makes use of certain locations that are historically and culturally significant so it is more closed related to the environment where this game is played. TimeWrap also suffers from inaccu-rate tracking and GPS errors for which it uses visual feedback, a graphical element in the head-mounted display for receiving tracking updates.
Figure 4.9: Player while playing TimeWarp game [29]
support”. However, Olsson et al. [53] has partially addressed first two ques-tions. Due to these reasons, I rigorously analyzed each and every application from design, feature and hosted content point of view. Furthermore, this is also one main reason why I chose to develop a framework of my own instead of taking any of the existing generic UX models. This framework presents the different aspects that I identified from the applications. In the middle of this review process, I figured out three broad features as “Social interactions”,
“Design”and“Experience”which are present in different applications. These broad features form the vertices for my feature triangle.
Feature triangle helps in mapping each application based on their prop-erties and functionalities into a three-dimensional feature space. The di-mensions of this feature space are derived from the research questions (see Section 1.3) of this thesis and therefore they are aligned with my main ob-jectives.
As explained in the research motivation (see Section 1.2), the title of the thesis contains three keywords as “People, Design and Experiences”. The three vertices of the feature triangle also represent these three keywords in the title of the thesis. This connection between the title of the thesis and feature triangle can be explained as - I found that people, design and ex-perience aspects affect the acceptability of any new technology or concept while reviewing different AR/MMR applications. The vertices of the feature triangle can be explained as
-1. Experience: Represents the experiential aspects of the application.
“Experience” is defined as “UX generated when a user interacts with a product individually or socially via an interface”. This definition for experience is same as I defined in the chapter 3 (see Section 3.5). UX refers to hedonic aspects such as pleasure, beauty and arousal and prag-matic aspects of use, i.e. utility but as in thesis, I am more interested in the hedonic side of UX so“Experience” also refers to the emotional and hedonic elements of UX associated with the use of MMR application.
UX of MMR application should be designed in order to give pleasing emotional response to its users.
2. People: Represents social interactions are facilitated by the applica-tion. Social interaction refers to a process where people respond or act towards each other. The keyword“People” refers to the social aspect of MMR. It is found that having factor of social engagement where people play in favor or against each other in MMR application can help in user adoption of MMR.
3. Design: Represents the design features of the application. “Design”
refers to the potential design of MMR application that enhances the experience of MMR users and provides engaging effect during interac-tion.
Figure 4.10: Feature Triangle
Dimensions of the resulting feature triangle (see Figure 4.10) are defined above. I placed all the above discussed applications (see Section 4.1) in the feature triangle. If an application is positioned at the end-points of the triangle then this indicates that only that corresponding dimension is utilized.
The main contribution of having feature triangle kind of framework is that it gives a brief overview on different features or vertices are utilized by different applications.
Urban Tapestries do not include any “People” aspect as it is used indi-vidually like other LBRs. It makes use of GPS and internet connectivity for serving maps, media annotations of the tracks. Moreover, it does not provide any new design or feature compared to other common LBR systems. In addi-tion, Desert Rain is quite similar. Although Desert Rain is a multiplayer MR game but it lacks “People” contribution because players do not play in favor or against each other at any time of the game. It also lacks in any “Design”
as the game is heavenly orchestrated by invisible actors and helpers. Due to these reasons I placed both these applications at “Experience” vertex of feature triangle as both the applications focus on experiential aspects but lacks in people and design aspects.
Human PacMan is a multiplayer game where players chase each other in the MR environment so it involves a “People” aspect where players tie up in groups in order to achieve common goals during the game. It makes use
of GPS, text messages and other wearable head mounted systems in order to achieve the AR environment. Similarly TimeWrap is also an outdoor multiplayer MMR game where players explore the history and culture of the place in MR space. Both the applications utilize the social feature that is why I placed both of them at “People” vertex of feature triangle. Due to inaccurate tracking, GPS errors and lack of any“Design” contribution, both these applications lack “Experiential” aspects.
Mogi, Pac-Manhattan, WLMTS and Co-visiting are multiplayer MMR games that are played using mobile phone interface. All of these games do not make use of heavy head mounted displays instead mobile phones are used hence participants’ experiential aspects are enhanced. This fact is fur-ther strengthened as none of them makes use of GPS tracking and wireless network connectivity. Mogi uses mobile phone network positioning to com-plement GPS based tracking; WLMTS uses alternate channels such as audio talk and ambient audio, Pac-Manhattan makes use of human controllers to determine the players’ position and Co-visiting uses shared audio channels for location tracking. This concludes that Mogi, Pac-Manhattan, WLMTS and Co-visiting have significant “Experiential” aspects. Mogi, Pac-Manhattan, WLMTS and Co-visiting involve certain factors that motivate players to communicate and collaborate using mobile interface. Those factors are col-lecting and trading of virtual items, messaging, live chat and virtual avatars.
This confirms significant “Design” contribution. Furthermore, all these ap-plications are multiplayer and involve collaborating and competing with each other. This confirms significant “People” contribution. I placed Mogi, Pac-Manhattan, WLMTS and Co-visiting in the center of feature triangle.
ARQuake, PlaceMail and GeoTracing are single player applications hence they lack “People” contribution in form of collaboration or competition.
ARQuake involve collected points, virtual gaming maps and shooting mon-sters, PlaceMail and GeoTracing makes use of GPS for location tagging and creating reminders. Hence ARQuake, PlaceMail and GeoTracing possess some “Design” contributions. GeoTracing suffers from GPS errors and wire-less fluctuations, ARQuake includes head mounted displays and other heavy hardware equipment for playing, and PlaceMail lacks in experiential aspects as it is an ordinary LBR. These demerits conclude that ARQuake, PlaceMail and GeoTracing lack “Experiential” aspects. I placed ARQuake, PlaceMail and GeoTracing at “Design” vertex of the feature triangle.
Based on the investigation of related applications, it is clear that only few of them make use of each of the dimensions. Thus, it is important to emphasize that not all of applications aim to facilitate social interactions and UX which is the main objective of this work. Moreover, I feel applications that are placed in the center of the triangle, meaning exploiting each and
every dimension of the feature triangle are competent and have potential to be the market leaders.