To explore people’s engagement with public displays and their behaviour when playing a game on such an installation (Interruption and Pausing of Public Display Games), I developed a simple game that supports full-body interaction.
The game is based on the principle of Space Invaders: A spaceship is superimposed on the silhouette of each player, which is captured with a Kinect sensor. Players can move around in front of the screen to collect power-ups, evade incoming missiles and shoot down invading space ships by performing predefined gestures.
Several techniques were implemented, to allow pausing, tolerate interruptions, and vary the degree of physical exertion during gameplay.
This system was deployed at the subway station Alexanderplatz in Berlin for a 2-week field study.
