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Description
The wide adoption and continued advancement of information and communications technologies (ICT) have made it easier than ever for individuals and groups to stay connected over long distances. These advances have greatly contributed in dramatically changing the dynamics of the modern day workplace to the point where it is now commonplace to see large, distributed multidisciplinary teams working together on a daily basis. However, in this environment, motivating, understanding, and valuing the diverse contributions of individual workers in collaborative enterprises becomes challenging. To address these issues, this thesis presents the goals, design, and implementation of Taskville, a distributed workplace game played by teams on large, public displays. Taskville uses a city building metaphor to represent the completion of individual and group tasks within an organization. Promising results from two usability studies and two longitudinal studies at a multidisciplinary school demonstrate that Taskville supports personal reflection and improves team awareness through an engaging workplace activity.
ContributorsNikkila, Shawn (Author) / Sundaram, Hari (Thesis advisor) / Byrne, Daragh (Committee member) / Davulcu, Hasan (Committee member) / Olson, Loren (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Stroke is a leading cause of disability with varying effects across stroke survivors necessitating comprehensive approaches to rehabilitation. Interactive neurorehabilitation (INR) systems represent promising technological solutions that can provide an array of sensing, feedback and analysis tools which hold the potential to maximize clinical therapy as well as extend therapy to the home. Currently, there are a variety of approaches to INR design, which coupled with minimal large-scale clinical data, has led to a lack of cohesion in INR design. INR design presents an inherently complex space as these systems have multiple users including stroke survivors, therapists and designers, each with their own user experience needs. This dissertation proposes that comprehensive INR design, which can address this complex user space, requires and benefits from the application of interdisciplinary research that spans motor learning and interactive learning. A methodology for integrated and iterative design approaches to INR task experience, assessment, hardware, software and interactive training protocol design is proposed within the comprehensive example of design and implementation of a mixed reality rehabilitation system for minimally supervised environments. This system was tested with eight stroke survivors who showed promising results in both functional and movement quality improvement. The results of testing the system with stroke survivors as well as observing user experiences will be presented along with suggested improvements to the proposed design methodology. This integrative design methodology is proposed to have benefit for not only comprehensive INR design but also complex interactive system design in general.
ContributorsBaran, Michael (Author) / Rikakis, Thanassis (Thesis advisor) / Olson, Loren (Thesis advisor) / Wolf, Steven L. (Committee member) / Ingalls, Todd (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Emerging technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), are growing in popularity and accessibility at a fast pace. Developers are building more and more games and applications with this technology but few have stopped to think about what the best practices are for creating a good user experience (UX). Currently, there are no universally accepted human-computer interaction guidelines for augmented reality because it is still relatively new. This paper examines three features - virtual content scale, indirect selection, and virtual buttons - in an attempt to discover their impact on the user experience in augmented reality. A Battleship game was developed using the Unity game engine with Vuforia, an augmented reality platform, and built as an iOS application to test these features. The hypothesis was that both virtual content scale and indirect selection would result in a more enjoyable and engaging user experience whereas the virtual button would be too confusing for users to fully appreciate the feature. Usability testing was conducted to gauge participants' responses to these features. After playing a base version of the game with no additional features and then a second version with one of the three features, participants rated their experiences and provided feedback in a four-part survey. It was observed during testing that people did not inherently move their devices around the augmented space and needed guidance to navigate the game. Most users were fascinated with the visuals of the game and two of the tested features. It was found that movement around the augmented space and feedback from the virtual content were critical aspects in creating a good user experience in augmented reality.
ContributorsBauman, Kirsten (Co-author) / Benson, Meera (Co-author) / Olson, Loren (Thesis director) / LiKamWa, Robert (Committee member) / School of the Arts, Media and Engineering (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This study explores the results of an event hosted for undergraduate students in the Arts, Media and Engineering (AME) department at Arizona State University. 18 students were asked to sit and eat lunch with one another and share their opinions on personal and school-related topics. A follow-up survey consisting of eight questions was sent out to gauge how effective this event was in getting students to build stronger relationships with each other. Statistical analysis showed that 89% of students who attended would participate again and consider collaborating with another student at the event in future projects. From these results, a series of future interventions like the one mentioned in this paper could promote stronger relationships among students and add value to the department. A positive response from the students who participated could imply that students might be more inclined to reach out to classmates when in a setting made for that purpose.
ContributorsWheeler, Hannah M (Author) / Tinapple, David (Thesis director) / Olson, Loren (Committee member) / Arts, Media and Engineering Sch T (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This thesis presents a multi-modal motion tracking system for stroke patient rehabilitation. This system deploys two sensor modules: marker-based motion capture system and inertial measurement unit (IMU). The integrated system provides real-time measurement of the right arm and trunk movement, even in the presence of marker occlusion. The information from the two sensors is fused through quaternion-based recursive filters to promise robust detection of torso compensation (undesired body motion). Since this algorithm allows flexible sensor configurations, it presents a framework for fusing the IMU data and vision data that can adapt to various sensor selection scenarios. The proposed system consequently has the potential to improve both the robustness and flexibility of the sensing process. Through comparison between the complementary filter, the extended Kalman filter (EKF), the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) and the particle filter (PF), the experimental part evaluated the performance of the quaternion-based complementary filter for 10 sensor combination scenarios. Experimental results demonstrate the favorable performance of the proposed system in case of occlusion. Such investigation also provides valuable information for filtering algorithm and strategy selection in specific sensor applications.
ContributorsLiu, Yangzi (Author) / Qian, Gang (Thesis advisor) / Olson, Loren (Committee member) / Si, Jennie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
With the increasing popularity of video games and the emergence of game streaming brought about by platforms such as Youtube and Twitch, combined with the multitude of ways to learn how to code from schools and online resources including Codecademy and Treehouse, game development has become incredibly approachable. Yet that does not mean it is simple. Developing a game requires a substantial amount of work, even before a design is considered worth making into a complete game. Over the course of this thesis, I created eight designs with accompanying prototypes. Only one was made into a fully functional release. I sought to make a game with a great design while increasing my understanding of game development and the code needed to finish a game. I came out realizing that I was in over my head. With the amount of work involved in creating an entire game, iteration is key to finding an idea that is capable of becoming a game that feels complete and enjoyable. A game's design must be fleshed out before technical work can truly begin, yet the design can take nearly as much time and effort as the code. In this thesis, each design is detailed and associated with why it seemed great and why it was replaced, with extra focus on the final design and how players felt about it. These designs are followed by what I learned about game development over the course of the thesis, including both the technical and emotional sides of developing a video game.
ContributorsCharnell, Zachary Andrew (Author) / Olson, Loren (Thesis director) / Amresh, Ashish (Committee member) / School of Arts, Media and Engineering (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
ContributorsRimsza, Melissa (Author) / Olson, Loren (Thesis director) / Moran, Stacey (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / Arts, Media and Engineering Sch T (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Comm (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
Popular competitive fighting games such as Super Smash Brothers and Street Fighter have some of the steepest learning curves in the gaming industry. These incredibly technical games require the full attention of the player and often take years to master completely. This barrier of entry prevents newer players from enjoying the competitive social environment that such games offer, creating a rift between casual and competitive players. Learning the rules can sometimes be more difficult than playing the game itself. To truly master these concepts requires personal attention from someone who deeply understands the core mechanics that operate behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, machine learning is growing more advanced by the day. Online retailers like Amazon run complex algorithms to recommend future purchases and monitor price changes. Mobile phones use neural networks to interpret speech. GPS apps track anonymous motion data in smartphones to give real-time traffic estimates. Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly ubiquitous because of its versatility in analyzing and solving human problems; it follows, then, that a machine could learn how to teach humans skills and techniques. HelperBot is a platform fighting game project that employs this cutting-edge learning technology to close the skill gap between novice and veteran gamers as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
Meanwhile, machine learning is growing more advanced by the day. Online retailers like Amazon run complex algorithms to recommend future purchases and monitor price changes. Mobile phones use neural networks to interpret speech. GPS apps track anonymous motion data in smartphones to give real-time traffic estimates. Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly ubiquitous because of its versatility in analyzing and solving human problems; it follows, then, that a machine could learn how to teach humans skills and techniques. HelperBot is a platform fighting game project that employs this cutting-edge learning technology to close the skill gap between novice and veteran gamers as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
ContributorsPalermo, Seth Daniel (Author) / Olson, Loren (Thesis director) / Marinelli, Donald (Committee member) / Arts, Media and Engineering Sch T (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This thesis surveys and analyzes applications of machine learning techniques to the fields of animation and computer graphics. Data-driven techniques utilizing machine learning have in recent years been successfully applied to many subfields of animation and computer graphics. These include, but are not limited to, fluid dynamics, kinematics, and character modeling. I argue that such applications offer significant advantages which will be pivotal in advancing the fields of animation and computer graphics. Further, I argue these advantages are especially relevant in real-time implementations when working with finite computational resources.
ContributorsSaba, Raphael Lucas (Author) / Foy, Joseph (Thesis director) / Olson, Loren (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
ContributorsBourne, Chloe (Author) / Asano, Mizuki (Co-author) / Olson, Loren (Thesis director) / Belgrave, Melita (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Comm (Contributor) / Arts, Media and Engineering Sch T (Contributor)
Created2023-12