This article is a short overview of the neXus project, Pieter Diepenmaat's master thesis project in Industrial Design Engineering at Hewlett Packard Labs and the IDStudiolab at Delft Technical University. A comprehensive overview of the project can be found in the downloadable version of the neXus’ HP tech report.
Take a look at pages from
the neXus thesis
(you can also watch the video in larger format on Vimeo or Youtube)
The neXus duo-device combines a thorough understanding of mediascape experiences with a realistic vision on how these experiences might evolve within the next five years to produce the first ever dedicated location based gaming device concept. The neXus and its accompanying example game concepts show that truely mixed-reality experiences call for a major rethink of mobile device design based on interactions that fit these experiences. It also shows fitting solutions are feasible as a product within the next 5 years.
The neXus provides compelling mixed reality experiences by means of a hand controller and a pair of headphones. The 3D audio coming from the headphones makes the virtual part of a game world come to life and allows players to locate virtual elements like objects, areas, characters and avatars while running through the mixed reality game world.
The sound is supported by a hand controller, which keeps players in touch with virtual game elements through tactile feedback. Game developers can use this for instance to allow players to feel in which direction a game element is located or experience their controller being pushed open when trying to hold an aggressive game character.
But most importantly, while still on the move, players use the neXus to manipulate virtual elements through a collection of playful gestures. If needed in a game, gestures can be used to pick up, exchange and throw virtual game elements. Just as easily, game areas can be manipulated and team tactics discussed over distance. The collection of neXus gestures is developed to be generic as well as playful in order to facilitate a wide variety of ‘running LBGs’.
Each gesture consists of hand and arm movements that running players can comfortably perform. At the same time, other players can identify these ‘medium size gestures’ from a distance and react. This puts manipulations of the virtual firmly in the physical world, which helps to further merge the two.
As described in part 3 of this article, in 5 years time an even stronger merger of physical and virtual in mediascapes is possible due to more accurate location sensing and more precise virtual representation of the physical world. Experienced LBG developers will use their understanding of the players’ context to take full advantage of this. Their virtual will be tailored to the physical based on knowledge of the physical location(s) including buildings, patterns of use, weather conditions, etc. The development of running LBG concepts during the neXus project showed this inspires a wide range of creative use by game developers. Besides games that adapt to the weather and time of day, examples can be found in ‘Captivate the crowd’, where escaped circus elephant tent to be found at the waterside and lions near butcher shops.
Sensing a running players’ location, head direction and gestures at the same time within two relatively small devices is an engineering challenge. But the Wii by Nintendo, which was launched during this project, has shown that it is currently possible to produce gesture-sensing controllers at a marketable price. Add to this the miniaturization of combined location sensing media/communication devices like mobile phones and PDAs and all major parts of the neXus are in place for it to be feasible as a product within the next 5 years.
Just as important to the neXus concept, the Wii shows that many people are interested in new and more physical ways of interacting with (gaming) computing devices. The neXus project identified ‘interacting with mixed-reality through movement’ as the essence of mediascape experiences. In current day mediascapes this takes the form of moving an avatar around by physically moving around. The neXus took this as the starting point and introduced a full spectrum of physical interaction based on movement, supported by 3D audio and tactile feedback. A player can interact with the game world, the elements that make up this world as well as other players in both the physical and virtual world at the same time.
All in all, by using 3D audio, tactile feedback and gestural interaction, the neXus allows fast moving players to navigate and manipulate both the physical and virtual part of the game world at the same time. In doing so it merges these two halves into one world and provides players with a truly mixed reality experience.
For questions or remarks regarding the neXus please contact Pieter Diepenmaat.
For possible future development of the neXus within HP please contact Phil Stenton, manager of technology and lifestyle integration research at HP Labs.
This article is a short overview of the neXus project, Pieter Diepenmaat's master thesis project in Industrial Design Engineering at Hewlett Packard Labs and the IDStudiolab at Delft Technical University. More in-depth information on the project can be found in the neXus’ HP tech report.
