Human-Swarm Interaction - Firefighting

Closed Human-Computer Interaction Computer Science Games Engineering Bachelor Master Project Thesis Games Research Lab

Background

Maintaining control over a complex system, that is a system that is comprised of large numbers of interacting, interdependent components, is a difficult task. The field of human-swarm interaction aims at finding slick solutions to this challenge by deploying and inventing innovative means, modalities and designs of interaction. Considering the novelty of this whole field, games lend themselves well for pushing the envelope, for amalgamating the state-of-the-art in visualisation, user interface design and novel input and display technologies. We have previously developed a series of games to investigate the complexity of complex, or self-organising, games [2] and we have conducted a first comparison between two interaction modalities indirect touch (using a mobile for control only) and 3D gesture recognition (using a LeapMotion device). Recent advances in AR and VR hardware and software libraries render it possible to push the boundaries further and to take the next step towards real-world swarm systems that will play an important role in emerging technologies [1].

Tasks

This project focusses on the iterative design of a game, where the player navigates and controls a firefighting swarm of drones by means of indirect touch control. This means a smart phone or tablet serves as input device next to a main display and the touch gestures are translated in the swarm’s configuration and actions. This work immediately draws from a preceding Master’s thesis, yet a graphical redesign of the game as well as the systematic refinement of the input gestures is required. In order to evaluate the new firefighting game, the student has to redesign a few levels that present the same challenges to the user as in the Master’s thesis’ work.

Prerequisites

A background in computer graphics, HCI, games or related fields is a great asset for this work.

References

[1] Victor Gerling and Sebastian von Mammen. Robotics for self-organised construction. In Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE 1st International Workshops on Foundations and Applications of Self* Systems, pages 156–165, Augsburg, Germany, September 2016. IEEE Computer Society.

[2] Sebastian von Mammen. Self-organisation in games, games on self-organisation. In Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications (VS-Games), 2016 8th International Conference on, pages 1–8. IEEE, 2016.

Contact Persons at the University Würzburg