Abstract
This paper presents a form of interaction with virtual characters. A virtual character can play the role of a user’s sidekick. Sidekicks interact with real and fictional characters helping them to overcome challenges. UBI, the Guardian Dragon, is a virtual sidekick that can help a user explore a space. UBI is part of vuSpot. With vuSpot we aim to design and develop an infrastructure, adaptable to a space that uses existing video cameras networks to provide means for augmenting spaces and supporting interactive experiences. vuSpot has several components, being the interaction with virtual characters one of the most important. With this component we intend to explore new forms of interaction using Augmented Reality and mobile devices. The interaction consists of performing physical actions that are captured on video and are recognized. The reaction of the characters to those actions is superimposed on the video stream that the user will visualize on the mobile device. This action-reaction environment allows a more interesting space exploration and provides means for gaming.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anagnostopoulos, V., Chatzis, S., Lalos, C., Doulamis, A., Kosmopoulos, D., Varvarigou, T., Neuschmied, H., Thallinger, G., Middleton, S.E., Addis, M., Bustos, E., Giorgini, F.: A cross media platform for personalized leisure & entertainment: The polymnia approach. In: AXMEDIS 2006: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Automated Production of Cross Media Content for Multi-Channel Distribution, pp. 283–290. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC (2006)
Azuma, R., Baillot, Y., Behringer, R., Feiner, S., Julier, S., MacIntyre, B.: Recent advances in augmented reality. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 21(6), 34–47 (2001)
Balan, R.K., Gergle, D., Satyanarayanan, M., Herbsleb, J.: Simplifying cyber foraging for mobile devices. In: MobiSys 2007: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services, pp. 272–285. ACM, New York (2007)
Beales, R., Middleton, S., Addis, M.: Ambient multi-camera personal documentaries. In: Visual Media Production, IETCVMP (2007)
Boberg, M., Piippo, P., Ollila, E.: Designing avatars. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Digital Interactive Media in Entertainment and Arts, DIMEA 2008, pp. 232–239. ACM, New York (2008)
Conway, D.J.: Dancing with Dragons. Llewellyn Publications (2003)
Hempel, L., Topfer, E.: Cctv europe, final report. Centre for Technology and Society, Technical University Berlin, Germany (August 2004)
Microsoft (online May 2012) microsoft kinect (2010)
Ong, S.K., Yuan, M.L., Nee, A.Y.: Tracking points using projective reconstruction for augmented reality. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Australasia and South East Asia, GRAPHITE 2005, November 29-December 02, pp. 421–424 (2005)
Ou, S., Karuppiah, D., Fagg, A., Riseman, E.: An augmented virtual reality interface for assistive monitoring of smart spaces. In: Proceedings of the Second IEEE Annual Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications, PerCom 2004, March 14-17, pp. 33–42 (2004)
Prince, S., Cheok, A.D., Farbiz, F., Williamson, T., Johnson, N., Billinghurst, M., Kato, H.: 3-d live: real time interaction for mixed reality. In: Proceedings of the 2002 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, pp. 364–371 (2002)
Rasmussen, N., Storring, M., Moeslund, T., Granum, E.: Real-time tracking for virtual environments using scaat kalman filtering and unsynchronized cameras. In: International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (VISAPP) (February 2006)
Rekimoto, J., Nagao, K.: The world through the computer: computer augmented interaction with real world environments. In: Proceedings of ACM UIST 1995, November 15-17, pp. 29–36 (1995)
Wagner, D., Billinghurst, M., Schmalstieg, D.: How real should virtual characters be? In: Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, ACE 2006. ACM, New York (2006)
Wagner, D., Schmalstieg, D.: First steps towards handheld augmented reality. In: Proceedings of the Seventh IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, October 18-21, pp. 127–135 (2003)
Wren, C., Azarbayejani, A., Darrell, T., Pentland, A.: Pfinder: real-time tracking of the human body. Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 19(7), 780–785 (1997)
Yang, J.: e-race: Avatars, anonymity and the virtualization of identity (March 2011) (online May 2012)
Yang, K., Ou, S., Chen, H.-H.: On effective offloading services for resource-constrained mobile devices running heavier mobile internet applications. IEEE Communications Magazine 46(1), 56–63 (2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Santos, R., Correia, N. (2012). UBI, The Guardian Dragon: Your Virtual Sidekick. In: Nijholt, A., Romão, T., Reidsma, D. (eds) Advances in Computer Entertainment. ACE 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7624. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34292-9_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34292-9_26
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-34291-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-34292-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)