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An Adaptive Approach to Exergames with Support for Multimodal Interfaces

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An Adaptive Approach to Exergames with Support for Multimodal Interfaces An Adaptive Approach to Exergames with Support for Multimodal Interfaces Juan Manuel Silva Salmerón Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree in Computer Science School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty of Engineering University of Ottawa © Juan Manuel Silva Salmerón, Ottawa, Canada, 2013 Abstract Technology such as television, computers, and video games are often in the line for reasons of why people lack physical activity and tend to gain weight and become obese. In the case of video games, with the advent of the so called ―serious games initiative‖, a new breed of video games have come into place. Such games are called ―exergames‖ and they are intended to motivate the user to do physical activity. Although there is some evidence that some types of Exergames are more physically demanding than traditional sedentary games, there is also evidence that suggests that such games are not really providing the intensity of exert that is at the recommended levels for a daily exercise. Currently, most exergames have a passive approach. There is no real tracking of the players progress, there is no assessment of his/her level of exert, no contextual information, and there is no adaptability on the game itself to change the conditions of the game and prompt the desired physiological response on the player. In this thesis we present research work done towards the design and development of an architecture and related systems that support a shift in the exertion game paradigm. The contributions of this work are enablers in the design and development of exertion games with a strict serious game approach. Such games should have ―exercising‖ as the primary goal, and a game engine that has been developed under this scheme should be aware of the exertion context of the player. The game should be aware of the level of exertion of the player and adapt the gaming context (in-game variables and exertion interface settings) so that the player can reach a predefined exertion rate as desired. To support such degree of adaptability in a multimedia, multimodal system, we have proposed a system architecture that lays down the general guidelines for the design and development of such systems. ii Acknowledgements I want to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Abdulmotaleb El Saddik for his advice and guidance during my research at the multimedia communications research laboratory. Thank you professor for all your time and for going beyond your responsibilities as a supervisor and become a friend who always cared for the well being of me and my family. Next I would like to thank my colleagues at the research lab with whom I held interesting conversations and who were always prompt to spark in me new ideas and directions. In particular I would like to thank my good friend Mauricio Orozco. Thank you Mauricio for your help in, and outside the lab, it was always a pleasure to have those lengthy conversations about research and life. Special thanks also to my other co-authors Jongeun Cha and Nasser Dardas. Collaboration with the three of you was very fruitful and I very much appreciate your work and dedication. This thesis is dedicated to the greatest loves of my life. To my wife Dulce, who has been my support for the greatest part of my life. Thank you for constantly pushing me forward and giving me the confidence to fulfill my dream of finishing my PhD program. To my two daughters Sofia and Laura who are my two gems and the source of inspiration for all the things that I embark upon. To my parents Juan and Rosalba who taught me the value of pursuing higher education and whose legacy I will pass on to my daughters. To my brother Moises and my sister Nayeli, for the countless hours of fun and laughter that we have shared in our lives. iii Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Motivation and application scenario ......................................................................... 2 1.2 Scope of research ...................................................................................................... 5 1.2.1 Research statement ............................................................................................. 5 1.2.2 Objectives ........................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Contributions ............................................................................................................. 7 1.4 Scholarly output ........................................................................................................ 7 1.5 Thesis structure ......................................................................................................... 8 2 Background and related work ................................................................................... 10 2.1 Serious Games ......................................................................................................... 10 2.1.1 Definition and delimitation ............................................................................... 11 2.1.2 Characterization of Serious Gamers ................................................................. 13 2.1.3 Classification of serious games ........................................................................ 14 2.1.5 Evaluation of effectiveness ............................................................................... 17 2.2 Serious Exertion Gaming ................................................................................... 19 2.2.1 Frameworks and guidelines .............................................................................. 20 2.2.3 Exertion Interfaces ............................................................................................ 21 2.2.3.1 Gestural interfaces ..................................................................................... 22 2.2.3.2 Smartphones and sensors as input controllers ........................................... 24 2.2.3.3 The role of haptics in games ...................................................................... 26 2.2.4 Heart rate as game input ................................................................................... 32 2.2.5 Summary ........................................................................................................... 34 3 Threshold of human tolerance to inter-stream synchronization skew in a multimedia application ......................................................................................................................... 37 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 37 3.2 Experimental Setting ............................................................................................... 38 3.3 Technical Setup ....................................................................................................... 39 3.5 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 40 3.5.1 Characterization of a phenomenon driven by sensitivity ................................. 40 3.5.2 The ―Up and down‖ methodology .................................................................... 41 iv 3.6 Procedure ................................................................................................................. 44 3.6.1 Control of the Media Stream Skew .................................................................. 46 3.6.2 Subjects ............................................................................................................. 47 3.7 Discussion & Results .............................................................................................. 47 3.8 Summary ................................................................................................................. 52 4 An Adaptive Approach to Exergames with Support for Multimodal Interfaces ....... 54 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 54 4.2 Functional requirements .......................................................................................... 54 4.3 Adaptive exergame architecture .............................................................................. 56 4.3.1 Prerequisites ...................................................................................................... 56 4.3.2 Adaptation Engine ............................................................................................ 58 4.3.3 Exertion estimation module .............................................................................. 58 4.3.4 User context and Knowledge Base ................................................................... 58 4.3.5 Sensor Management Module ............................................................................ 59 4.3.6 Natural interface applications ........................................................................... 59 4.4 Components interaction ........................................................................................... 60 4.5 Algorithms for estimation of level of exertion ........................................................ 63 4.5.1 Linear algorithm for exertion estimation .......................................................... 63 4.5.2 A fuzzy
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