Human Pacman: A mobile entertainment system with ubiquitous computing and tangible interaction over a wide outdoor area

Abstract

Human Pacman is an interactive role-playing game that envisions to bring the computer gaming experience to a new level of emotional and sensory gratification by setting the real world as a playground. This is a physical fantasy game integrated with human-social and mobile-gaming that emphasizes on collaboration and competition between players. By setting the game in a wide outdoor area, natural human-physical movements have become an integral part of the game. Pacmen and Ghosts are now human players in the real world experiencing mixed reality visualization from the wearable computers on them. Virtual cookies and actual physical objects are incorporated to provide novel experiences of seamless transitions between real and virtual worlds and tangible human computer interface respectively. We believe Human Pacman is pioneering a new form of gaming that anchors on physicality, mobility, social interaction, and ubiquitous computing. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.