Exploring 3D User Interface Technologies for Improving the Gaming Experience

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Exploring 3D User Interface Technologies for Improving the Gaming Experience EXPLORING 3D USER INTERFACE TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING THE GAMING EXPERIENCE by ARUN KUMAR KULSHRESHTH M.S. University of Central Florida, 2012 M.Tech. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, 2005 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering & Computer Science at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2015 Major Professor: Joseph J. LaViola Jr. c 2015 Arun Kumar Kulshreshth ii ABSTRACT 3D user interface technologies have the potential to make games more immersive & engaging and thus potentially provide a better user experience to gamers. Although 3D user interface technolo- gies are available for games, it is still unclear how their usage affects game play and if there are any user performance benefits. A systematic study of these technologies in game environments is required to understand how game play is affected and how we can optimize the usage in order to achieve better game play experience. This dissertation seeks to improve the gaming experience by exploring several 3DUI technologies. In this work, we focused on stereoscopic 3D viewing (to improve viewing experience) coupled with motion based control, head tracking (to make games more engaging), and faster gesture based menu selection (to reduce cognitive burden associated with menu interaction while playing). We first studied each of these technologies in isolation to understand their benefits for games. We present the results of our experiments to evaluate benefits of stereoscopic 3D (when coupled with motion based control) and head tracking in games. We discuss the reasons behind these findings and provide recommendations for game designers who want to make use of these technologies to enhance gaming experiences. We also present the results of our experiments with finger-based menu selection techniques with an aim to find out the fastest technique. Based on these findings, we custom designed an air-combat game prototype which simultaneously uses stereoscopic 3D, head tracking, and finger-count shortcuts to prove that these technologies could be useful for games if the game is designed with these technologies in mind. Additionally, to enhance depth discrimination and minimize visual discomfort, the game dynamically optimizes iii stereoscopic 3D parameters (convergence and separation) based on the user’s look direction. We conducted a within subjects experiment where we examined performance data and self-reported data on users perception of the game. Our results indicate that participants performed significantly better when all the 3DUI technologies (stereoscopic 3D, head-tracking and finger-count gestures) were available simultaneously with head tracking as a dominant factor. We explore the individual contribution of each of these technologies to the overall gaming experience and discuss the reasons behind our findings. Our experiments indicate that 3D user interface technologies could make gaming experience better if used effectively. The games must be designed to make use of the 3D user interface technologies available in order to provide a better gaming experience to the user. We explored a few technologies as part of this work and obtained some design guidelines for future game designers. We hope that our work will serve as the framework for the future explorations of making games better using 3D user interface technologies. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Joseph J. LaViola Jr., for his guidance and support that made this dissertation much more coherent. I also wish to thank the esteemed members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Niels da Vitoria Lobo, Dr. Charles E. Hughes, and Dr. Maic Masuch for their valuable feedback and guidance. I wish to acknowledge the assistance of past and present members of Interactive Systems and User Experience Research Cluster of Excellence (ISUERCE), without whose support this work would not have been possible. A special thanks goes to Jeff Cashion for the website he designed for managing user study participants. I am sincerely grateful to my family, especially my wife, and friends who beared with me throughout this journey. This work is supported in part by NSF CAREER award IIS-0845921, and NSF awards IIS-0856045 and CCF-1012056. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES . xiii LIST OF TABLES . .xviii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 Motivation . 1 Statement of Research Question . 1 Contributions . 3 Dissertation Outline . 6 CHAPTER 2: RELATED WORK . 7 Stereoscopic 3D . 8 Performance with Display Type . 9 Interplay with Interaction Technique and Motion Cues . 10 Stereoscopic 3D Game Design . 11 Negative Aspects of Stereoscopic 3D . 11 Stereoscopic 3D Optimizations . 11 vi Head Tracking . 12 Gesture Based Menu Selection . 15 Using Several Technologies Simultaneously . 17 Evaluating Game Performance . 19 CHAPTER 3: STEREOSCOPIC 3D IN GAMES . 20 Introduction . 20 User Evaluations . 21 Participants and Equipment . 21 Experimental Task . 22 Design and Procedure . 23 Quantitative and Qualitative Metrics . 24 Procedure . 27 Selecting the Games . 28 Results and Analysis . 30 Hustle Kings . 30 Pain.......................................... 32 The Fight: Lights Out . 34 vii Tumble . 35 Virtua Tennis 4 . 37 Stereoscopic 3D Questions . 38 Discussion . 39 Conclusion . 43 CHAPTER 4: HEAD TRACKING IN GAMES . 44 Introduction . 44 Selecting the Games . 44 User Evaluations . 46 Participants and Equipment . 47 Experimental Task . 49 Design and Procedure . 49 Quantitative and Qualitative Metrics . 50 Procedure . 53 Results and Analysis . 53 Arma II . 54 Dirt 2 . 55 viii Microsoft Flight . 57 Wings of Prey . 59 Head Tracking Questions . 61 Discussion . 61 Conclusion . 65 CHAPTER 5: FINGER COUNT BASED MENU SELECTION . 67 Introduction . 67 Menu Selection Techniques . 68 Hand-n-Hold Menu . 69 Thumbs-Up Menu . 70 Finger-Count Menu . 71 3D Marking Menu . 72 User Evaluations . 73 Subjects and Apparatus . 74 Procedure . 75 Experiment 1: Hand-n-Hold, Thumbs-Up, and Finger-Count Menu Comparison . 75 Experiment Design . 76 ix Quantitative Results . 77 Qualitative Results . 80 Experiment 2: Compare Finger-Count Menu with 3D Marking Menu . 83 Experimental Design . 84 Quantitative Results . 84 Qualitative Results . 86 Discussion . 87 Conclusion . 91 CHAPTER 6: DYNAMIC STEREOSCOPIC 3D PARAMETERS . 92 Introduction . 92 Dynamic Stereoscopic 3D . 93 Type 1: Large depth range variation . 93 Type 2: Large object in front of camera . 95 Implementation Details . 96 User Evaluations . 99 Results . 100.
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