Software Architecture for Location-Based Games Designed for Social Interaction in Public Space

Abstract

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.

METs as Gamified Health Indicator to Promote Elderly Active Lifestyle and Technology Acceptance in Ambient Assisted Living

“…Numerous strategies exist to influence the level of engagement of the elderly with interactive technology in AAL settings, such as the allowance of creative expression, emotional attachment, knowledge sharing, and activities with a purpose they identify with [17,38,39]. It is worth noting, however, that by "the elderly", this paper refers to healthy independent senior individuals and not to those seriously impaired mentally or physically.…”

“…This conceptual architecture assumes a 3-tier AAL system as what is commonly proposed as future healthcare systems: with edge and fog computing as architectural concepts needed to adopt new IoT sensors/actuators and handle the consequentially huge amounts of data with a short reaction time [24,60]. The architectural proposal for the LBGs is based on what these games require to work in terms of infrastructure and third-party services (e.g., map provision, gaming accounts, and geolocated points of interest) [17,61].…”

“…The LBG Secrets of the South (SotS) is a game created for the promotion of meaningful social interaction in public space and has been validated with both adolescents and adults in both Rotterdam and the Hague, the Netherlands [17,18,39,42]. It is a game that proposes gaming activities (named challenges) spread across the city, and these activities require different sort of actions to be solved: Quizzes with open and closed answers, taking pictures and voting on other players' pictures, doing physical activities together in a group of players (e.g., playing music or football in the middle of the street), or performing given actions within a time limit [18,36,41,62].…”

“…The test session lasted around 25 minutes in a walking pace, with a senior male individual weighing 78kg, and the resulting gameplay data that were logged by the LBG are plotted in both Figures 4 and 5. The SotS software architecture [17].…”

“…The serious games discussed in this paper are digital location based, that is, games that run on location-aware smartphones connected to the internet and that are designed to provide an outdoor pervasive gaming experience. Even though argued to be lacking overall social acceptance themselves as "serious" applications for healthcare [2], serious games in general are established as valid options for multiple health-related purposes such as rehabilitation [16], physical exercise [17][18][19], and cognitive training [20]. Serious location-based games (LBGs) serve as a potential means for a more sustainable and engaging health improvement approach to AAL settings, as they expose healthy players to their physical surroundings and motivate them to go outside and do fun game activities to advance gameplay.…”