Research Colloquium at SFU’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology in Surrey presents SIAT Graduate Students

TERRY LAVENDER

JOSHUA TANENBAUM & ANGELA TOMIZU

October 10, 2007 at 2:30 pm

SFU Surrey Campus, Room 5380 (5th Floor Galleria)

TERRY LAVENDER

Title: Homeless: It’s No Game -- Measuring the Effectiveness of Persuasive Videogames

Abstract:

Persuasive games, such as advergames, political games, health games, edugames and advocacy games, are growing in popularity but there is little empirical evidence for their effectiveness. An Internet-based casual game, Homeless: It’s No Game, has been developed to test the effectiveness of videogames as persuasive agents. In the game, the player assumes the role of a homeless person who is trying to survive for 24 hours on the streets. Subjects were surveyed on their attitudes towards homelessness and towards videogames. Preliminary results from the study will be presented.

Bio:

Terry Lavender is a graduate student in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology. His area of interest is the development and the effectiveness of social advocacy videogames.

JOSH TANENBAUM & ANGELA TOMIZU

Title: Affective Interaction Design and Narrative Presentation

Abstract:

Their paper describes their prototype interactive multimedia story entitled Scarlet Skellern and the Absent Urchins. In Scarlet Skellern they explore how reader interaction can modify presentational elements of a story, rather than plot events. By implementing a rudimentary user model for evaluating reader mood, they hope to transform Scarlet Skellern into an “affective mirror”, that is “simultaneously reading you as you are reading it.” They will outline the basic theory underlying the design of the system, and describe the first iteration of the project. They also will be demonstrating Scarlet Skellern and the Absent Urchins at the AAAI Fall Symposium on Intelligent Narrative Technologies in Virginia in November 2007.

Bio:

Joshua Tanenbaum is a Masters of Art student at SIAT. His research interests include interactive narrative, adaptive systems, user modeling, and artificial intelligence.

Angela Tomizu is a Masters of Art student at SIAT. Her research interests include immersive environments, interactive narrative and the creation of empathetic emotional response through art and technology.