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Location-based games (LBGs) are becoming increasingly more popular, especially those that focus on social interaction in public space. They have been successful to various extents at bringing players together to interact in public space; yet there is lack of knowledge and consensus on how to design these games from a technical perspective. This paper proposes a software architecture that stems from a cross-game analysis of representative games of this genre, in which 6 core architectural components are identified: Augmentation, Navigation, Interaction, State Progression, Participation, and Administration. These components support the game experience of players by enabling orientation and navigation of the players’ own physical environment, their interaction with the game and other people, the traditional game-like experience, management of the entire game ecosystem, and the ability to allow players to fuel game play. An LBG prototype, Secrets of the South, is presented as proof of concept for this software architecture and its key components. This prototype shows that the identified components are pivotal to the gameplay of LBGs for natural interactions in public space and shows how practitioners can be guided in their preparation whilst maintaining their freedom to technically implement this architecture according to the given structure.

Recent literature has indicated altered motor control in individuals with non-specific low back pain (NSLBP). These individuals present variations in back muscular activity and center of mass (CoM) oscillations. The aim of this study is to explore the possibility of quantitatively measuring these differences using standard parameters with electronic devices. Twenty individuals with NSLBP and 20 healthy controls, matched by sex and age, performed a total of three trials under three different conditions for 90 seconds each. These conditions were standing on firm ground with eyes open, with eyes closed and standing on unstable foam with eyes open. Balance data was acquired via a Kistler force platform and muscular activity was measured by electromyography derived bilaterally from the erector spinae. Afterwards, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire on their current mood, pain rating, well-being, disability and physical activity. Descriptive data from the questionnaire showed an average acute pain score of 2.6 and an average pain score of 5.1 for the prior six weeks in the NSLBP group, while the control group reported an acute pain of 0.1 and an average pain of 0.5. For wellbeing, differences were found only for the physical scale. Average disability was low for the NSLBP group. No differences in physical activity were found among groups. A repeated measures ANOVA did not show significant differences between groups for any parameter. There was also no main effect for the standing conditions and no interaction between group and condition. Simultaneously measuring biomechanical and neuromuscular parameters, allowed for a fine grain approach to understanding motor control in individuals with NSLBP. This study did not find differences as described in the literature, and suggests further examination of factors involved in pain and control processes to better understand implications of NSLBP and possible avenues for support.

Recent literature has indicated altered motor control in individuals with non-specific low back pain (NSLBP). These individuals present variations in back muscular activity and center of mass (CoM) oscillations. The aim of this study is to explore the possibility of quantitatively measuring these differences using standard parameters with electronic devices. Twenty individuals with NSLBP and 20 healthy controls, matched by sex and age, performed a total of three trials under three different conditions for 90 seconds each. These conditions were standing on firm ground with eyes open, with eyes closed and standing on unstable foam with eyes open. Balance data was acquired via a Kistler force platform and muscular activity was measured by electromyography derived bilaterally from the erector spinae. Afterwards, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire on their current mood, pain rating, well-being, disability and physical activity. Descriptive data from the questionnaire showed an average acute pain score of 2.6 and an average pain score of 5.1 for the prior six weeks in the NSLBP group, while the control group reported an acute pain of 0.1 and an average pain of 0.5. For wellbeing, differences were found only for the physical scale. Average disability was low for the NSLBP group. No differences in physical activity were found among groups. A repeated measures ANOVA did not show significant differences between groups for any parameter. There was also no main effect for the standing conditions and no interaction between group and condition. Simultaneously measuring biomechanical and neuromuscular parameters, allowed for a fine grain approach to understanding motor control in individuals with NSLBP. This study did not find differences as described in the literature, and suggests further examination of factors involved in pain and control processes to better understand implications of NSLBP and possible avenues for support.

Serious games present a valuable tool for continuous cognitive assessments especially in the case of elderly, where there is a lack of cognitive tools to continuously assess the transitory conditions that occur between normal cognition and cognitive failure. However, designing games for elderly poses distinctive challenges since one has to take into account the limited experience of today's elderly with digital gameplay interfaces like touch screens that are second-nature to younger players. In this paper we present an initial user study with young and healthy subjects where we evaluate a computer-vision based digitalization process that is necessary to turn a physical version of the board game "Ludo" into an automated assessment tool. We further evaluate to which extend this tool presents a valid alternative to assess the strategic cognitive capabilities of a person. We have chosen Ludo in its physical form after careful consideration together with elderly and caregivers since many elderlies know this game from their childhood and thus do not need to learn new game rules or to adapt to digital environment.

This paper explains the RAGE project, which proposes a component-based software architecture to accommodate and amplify serious game develop-ment. The RAGE project (rageproject.eu) is a serious gaming flagship project funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Commission. Compliancy with the component-based architecture preserves the portability of software to different platforms and programming languages and its easy integration in wide variety of game engines. RAGE has developed up to 40 cutting edge reusable software components (all free, open source software) and has made these available on its market place portal at gamecompo-nents.eu.

In this chapter, we propose an ethical framework for serious game design, which we term the Ecosystem for Designing Games Ethically (EDGE). EDGE expands on Zagal’s categorization of ethical areas in game design by incorporating the different contexts of design and their use. In addition, we leverage these contexts to suggest four guidelines that support Ethical Stewardship in serious game design. We conclude by discussing a number of specific areas in which ethics plays a role in serious game design. These include games in (a) a military context, (b) the consideration of privacy issues, and (c) the evaluation of game design choices.

© Springer International Publishing AG 2016. A serious game needs to combine a number of different aspects to help the end user in reaching the desired effects. This requires incorporating a broad range of different aspects in the design, stemming from a broad range of different fields of expertise. For designers, developers, researchers, and other stakeholders it is not straightforward how to organize the design and development process, to make sure that these aspects are properly addressed. In this chapter we will discuss a number of ways of organizing the design and development process and various models that support specific design decisions during this process, concluding with a discussion of design patterns for serious games.

This chapter discusses educational aspects and possibilities of serious games. For researchers as well as game designers we describe key learning theories to ground their work in theoretical framework. We draw on recent metareviews to offer an exhaustive inventory of known learning and affective outcomes in serious games, and to discuss assessment methods valuable not only for research but also for efficient serious game design. The implementation and design of serious games are outlined in separated sections. Different individual characteristics that seem to be strongly affecting process of learning with serious games (learning style, gender and age) are discussed with emphasis on game development.

Auf der Suche nach Antworten auf die Frage, welche Probleme einem Engagement von ca. 90 % der Hochschullehrerinnen und Hochschullehrer der Universität Rostock sowie deren wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter im Lebenslangen Lernen (LLL) und in der Wissenschaftlichen Weiterbildung möglicherweise entgegenstehen, liefert das vorliegende Arbeitspapier erste Erklärungsansätze. Insbesondere erweist sich der geringe Stellenwert der Wissenschaftlichen Weiterbildung an der Universität Rostock - aber vermutlich auch an den meisten anderen deutschen Universitäten - als problematisch, der sich einerseits darin zeigt, dass Landesregierung und Universitätsleitung die Einhaltung des Weiterbildungsauftrags nicht nachdrücklich einfordern und andererseits in der mangelnden Akzeptanz von Weiterbildung als Aufgabe von Professorinnen und Professoren. Aus deren Sicht sind dafür v.a. die beschränkten Ressourcen der Universität verantwortlich: neben Forschung und Lehre im grundständigen Studium lässt die knappe Ausstattung der Lehrstühle kaum zusätzliche Aktivitäten in der Wissenschaftlichen Weiterbildung zu. Überdies fehlen attraktive Anreize für ein Weiterbildungsengagement von Hochschullehrenden in der Weiterbildung. Dass trotz dieser wenig weiterbildungsförderlichen Umstände dennoch rund 10 % der Hochschullehrerinnen und Hochschullehrer in der Wissenschaftlichen Weiterbildung der Universität Rostock aktiv sind, ist sicher auch dem hohen Engagement der Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter dieses Bereichs zu verdanken. Wie die Untersuchung von Maaß et al. (2013) zeigte, entstehen neue weiterbildende Studiengänge und Zertifikatskurse i.d.R. erst durch die Initiative des Bereichs Wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung und die kontinuierliche Begleitung des Entstehungsprozesses.

Auf der Suche nach Antworten auf die Frage, welche Probleme einem Engagement von ca. 90 % der Hochschullehrerinnen und Hochschullehrer der Universität Rostock sowie deren wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter im Lebenslangen Lernen (LLL) und in der Wissenschaftlichen Weiterbildung möglicherweise entgegenstehen, liefert das vorliegende Arbeitspapier erste Erklärungsansätze. Insbesondere erweist sich der geringe Stellenwert der Wissenschaftlichen Weiterbildung an der Universität Rostock – aber vermutlich auch an den meisten anderen deutschen Universitäten – als problematisch, der sich einerseits darin zeigt, dass Landesregierung und Universitätsleitung die Einhaltung des Weiterbildungsauftrags nicht nachdrücklich einfordern und andererseits in der mangelnden Akzeptanz von Weiterbildung als Aufgabe von Professorinnen und Professoren. Aus deren Sicht sind dafür v.a. die beschränkten Ressourcen der Universität verantwortlich: neben Forschung und Lehre im grundständigen Studium lässt die knappe Ausstattung der Lehrstühle kaum zusätzliche Aktivitäten in der Wissenschaftlichen Weiterbildung zu. Überdies fehlen attraktive Anreize für ein Weiterbildungsengagement von Hochschullehrenden in der Weiterbildung. Dass trotz dieser wenig weiterbildungsförderlichen Umstände dennoch rund 10 % der Hochschullehrerinnen und Hochschullehrer in der Wissenschaftlichen Weiterbildung der Universität Rostock aktiv sind, ist sicher auch dem hohen Engagement der Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter dieses Bereichs zu verdanken. Wie die Untersuchung von Maaß et al. (2013) zeigte, entstehen neue weiterbildende Studiengänge und Zertifikatskurse i.d.R. erst durch die Initiative des Bereichs Wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung und die kontinuierliche Begleitung des Entstehungsprozesses.

Hochschule und Weiterbildung (2014) 1, S. 20-25, Seit 2007 müssen sich Hochschulen mit dem Europäischen Beihilferecht auseinandersetzten und ihre Tätigkeiten in wirtschaftliche und nichtwirtschaftliche differenzieren sowie deren Kosten und Finanzierungen getrennt aufzeichnen. Die Einteilung der Hochschultätigkeiten in die beiden Kategorien hat für die Zulässigkeit unterschiedlicher Formen der Finanzierung für die jeweilige Tätigkeit eine große Bedeutung, kann jedoch aufgrund der nichttrennscharfen Definition der Begriffe nicht immer so einfach erfolgen. Bisherige Systematiken für andere Hochschulbereiche sind nicht pauschal auf die Hochschulweiterbildung übertragbar, ohne dass der Bildungsauftrag ignoriert wird. Um Hochschulverantwortlichen einen Ausweg aus diesem Dilemma zu zeigen, werden die Handlungsalternativen im Umgang mit dem EUBeihilferecht anhand ihrer Konsequenzen analysiert. (DIPF/Orig.)

The Virtual Storyteller is a multi-agent framework for automatic story generation. In this paper we describe how plots emerge from the actions of semi-autonomous character agents, focusing on the influence of the characters’ emotions on plot development.

Complex application examples or scenarios such as site planning need a lot of information, especially spatially referenced data (studies have shown that the amount of spatial information/geodata is 80-85% relating to all new data produced by the actual information society) in order to find a best place for a new building or an industrial area and to solve individual planning tasks such as generating ecological, environmental or traffic reports. Recent initiatives to geospatial data archives or any other necessary information for the site planning process offer access to a wealth of distributed data covered by the widespread information spectrum of different geodata disciplines (e.g. environmental data, geologic data, cadastral data, remote sensing data or socio-demographic data), but offer only basic levels of interactivity and user assistance. The EU funded project INVISIP (Information Visualization for Site Planning) addresses this lack of usability and aims to develop new visualizations to support all involved parties within the different phases of the multi-step site planning process. This paper introduces the GeoCrystal and the SuperTable + Scatterplot as new information visualization techniques (based on metadata and metaphors) to support accessing geospatial data archives and site planning in general.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Third Joint International Conference on Serious Games, JCSG 2017, held in Valencia, Spain, in November 2017. This conference bundles the activities of\ud the 8th International Conference on Serious Games Development and Applications, SGDA 2017, and the 7th Conference on Serious Games, GameDays 2017.\ud \ud The total of 23 full papers, 3 short papers, and 4 poster papers was carefully reviewed and selected from 44 submissions. The topics covered by the conference offered participants a valuable platform to discuss and learn about the latest developments, technologies and possibilities in the development \ud and use of serious games with a special focus on how different fields can be combined to achieve the best possible results.

Interactive new media art and games belong to distinctive fields, but nevertheless share common grounds, tools, methodologies, challenges, and goals, such as the use of applications and devices for engaging multiple participants and players, and more recently electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). At the same time, an increasing number of new neuroscientific studies explore the phenomenon of brain-to-brain coupling, the dynamics and processes of the interaction and synchronisation between multiple subjects and their brain activity. In this context, we discuss interactive works of new media art, computer and serious games that involve the interaction of the brain-activity, and hypothetically brain-to-brain coupling, between multiple performer/s, spectator/s, or participants/players. We also present Enheduanna – A Manifesto of Falling (2015), a new live brain-computer cinema performance, with the use of an experimental passive multi-brain BCI system under development. The aim is to explore brain-to-brain coupling between performer/s and spectator/s as means of controlling the audio-visual creative outputs.

We present findings of an observational study investigating how young children interact with augmented reality story books. Children aged between 6 and 7 read and interacted with one of two story books aimed at early literacy education. The books pages were augmented using animated virtual 3D characters, sound, and interactive tasks. Introducing novel media to young children requires system and story designers to consider not only technological issues but also questions arising from story design and the design of interactive sequences. We discuss findings of our study and implications regarding the implementation of augmented story books.

Durch die proaktive Bereitstellung von Informationen über die praxisindividuelle Qualitätsstruktur im Rahmen des Transparenzberichts soll das Vertrauen in die Prüfungsqualität gestärkt werden. Die Dissertation untersucht die Nutzung des Transparenzberichts im Rahmen eines prüferseitigen Signalling sowie eines adressatenseitigen Screenings. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Transparenzbericht für Adressaten ein schwaches Qualitätssignal darstellt. Neben hohen Kosten der Informationsbeschaffung dürfte dies auf die mangelnde Differenzierbarkeit zwischen Qualitätsniveaus zurückzuführen sein., Through the provision of information about the auditor-specific quality structure within the Transparency Report, trust in audit quality ought to be strengthened. The dissertation analyses the use of the Transparency Report in the context of auditor-side signalling and addressee-side screening. The results show that the Transparency Report is a weak quality signal for addressees. Besides the high cost of information gathering, this could be explained by the lack of differentiation between quality levels.

Augmented Reality (AR) technology is one of the fastest growing areas in the computing field and it has pervaded many applications in the market including museums. However, there is a need for a survey exploring the effectiveness of augmented reality as a communication medium in museums. This paper reviews the development of Augmented Reality as a mass communication [1] tool in museums. We introduce a communication model which would work as a roadmap building AR guidance system with ensuring this system will be a successful method of communication with users. Besides, we propose a novel way to enhance the visitors’ experience and learning by combining AR with games in museums.