Age Invaders: Entertainment for elderly and young

Abstract

This chapter presents the design process of Age Invaders, an intergenerational family entertainment system which focuses on physical and social interactions using a mixed reality floor system. The main design goals include facilitating interactions between users with varied levels of skill in utilizing technology, utilizing the familiar physical motions from other activities to make an intuitive physical interface, and encouraging social interactions among families and friends. Four main prototype iterations for the system are presented. Our design process is based on User Centered Design and relies on constant involvement of users to understand the key issues and to help make effective design decisions. The results of the study help to focus the refinements of the existing platform from a usability standpoint and also aid in the development of new physical entertainment and interactive applications. This study provides insights into user issues including how users interact in a complex mixed reality experience. At the end of this chapter, we presented the design of a toolkit that enables easy access and programming of the Age Invaders system. This toolkit could be used as a general platform for designing and reprogramming new type of artwork, entertainment, games, and applications. © 2010 Springer-Verlag London Limited.