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Researchers at Oxford Brookes University have shared their computer vision expertise to help enhance interactions in augmented reality (AR) systems, directly contributing to the development of Sony's Wonderbook. This has facilitated economic and cultural impacts demonstrated through delivery of AR books to the gaming community. Through the understanding and utilisation of the complex mathematical theory behind computer vision, the partnership were able to create a robust human hand tracker and segmenter that could calculate the position of the player's hand and segment it in a live video in real-time. The result was a display that looked more natural and quite literally enabled books to `come to life' on the screen in dramatic new ways that can be used equally for entertainment and education.
An innovative approach towards researching story-telling and its relevance in games design has resulted in cultural and economic impact in the creative sector and generated novel approaches that have influenced creative practice in the games industry. As a direct result of the research, an independent games development studio has been established and two commercial game titles have been released, with commercial sales to date of approximately £1.65m. The first release, Dear Esther, has been a major commercial success, has also won several industry recognition awards and is cited as directly responsible for the genesis of a new gaming genre.
Research on forms of agency in digital games has been directly applied to major game releases in Facebook and social-mobile development, demonstrating substantial and measurable commercial impact with global potential within a highly competitive industry. Specific research insights have affected key aspects of the design of individual games, resulting in higher than usual success rates for the titles involved. These insights have also improved the playing experiences of large numbers of players, as demonstrated by the level of take-up, creating a broader cultural impact. The impact is significant, in substantially improving the performance of games, and has extensive reach via the numbers of players who have benefited from an improved experience.
To date the research has had impact on more than one million players and helped to secure multiple contracts worth more than £2 million for the British game company Mediatonic. It has the potential (based on the user-bases of the companies involved) to reach more than 300 million users. Social-mobile games are at the forefront of the contemporary games industry. Mediatonic is a world leader in this form of gaming and this research has substantially influenced the company's design strategy.
The project impacts by connecting people with technology through an interactive art project. Portable equipment ensures wide participation: people respond to, and interact with, virtual living creatures in an entertaining but instructive context. Bringing together human participants (able to intervene in the environment) with the virtual bugs (responsive to stimuli/their environment), people are challenged to consider cause and effect in the physical environment as well as their own inter-social relations. The impact which is cultural, imaginative and pedagogic is achieved through touch rather than via the normal emphasis on the communicated world.
This case exemplifies leading-edge practice in the coaching and management of elite sports teams in the UK, USA and Australia. Professor Bill Gerrard is one of the first to apply statistical analysis to the management of `invasion'/tactical team sports. This original contribution has been to practices in both the boardroom and the locker room. The approach affects day-to-day decision-making in a range of areas, including recruitment of players, training priorities, team selection and game tactics. Application of the approach now extends to three continents and is applicable to all invasion team sports including football/soccer, rugby union and rugby league.
This case study presents research of the Virtual Reality and Visualisation (VRV) Group, particularly its lead project, the Virtual NewcastleGateshead (VNG) agreement and city model. This work has influenced and harmonised the planning processes and assessment methodologies of the two municipalities and has enhanced professional practice, enabling the proposals of developers and architects of 12 major urban development projects to be more accurate, efficient and profitable. The model has also informed the business decisions of Nexus, the Tyne and Wear Metro operator and impacted upon public awareness (e.g. in creating a virtual e-mobility route linking North Sea Region countries). Its cultural and artistic impact includes a virtual reconstruction of Medieval Newcastle and its role in supporting public exhibitions and artistic endeavours.
The Mixed Reality Laboratory (MRL) has collaborated with the artists Blast Theory to transform UK theatre and drive innovation in games and television. The underlying research was published as a series of papers in ACM Transactions on CHI and at the ACM's CHI conference between 2003 and 2012, with two CHI papers winning best paper awards. By creating and touring a series of innovative and technically advanced performances, we have enriched cultural life and influenced a rising generation of UK artists. By then jointly collaborating with companies such as Microsoft, Sony, Nokia and the BBC, we have innovated new games and television formats. Evidence of this impact is to be found in: performances touring to 40 venues in 18 countries to be experienced by over 200,000 people; 160 reviews in international press; artistic and industry awards; direct involvement of industry partners in follow-on commercial projects; and consultancy.