Special Issue on Hybrid Games and Interaction Design

Board games gained significant momentum throughout the past two decades, with some of the best creations earning millions of dollars in funding platforms during 2021, in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, digital games have surpassed all other media, from film to music, in investments and returns. Board and digital games are two forms of play which use the same base of design (the game design) so it was without surprise that a new hybrid approach, that mixed both media, would appear.

In this special issue, we want not only to present the current state-of-the-art of the hybrid games, as the possibilities beyond current days, making use of speculative approaches to design, as design fiction, but we want to dig deeper through the lenses of interaction design, to understand the new needs in the realm of technologies. Furthermore, we want to understand the full impacts and effects of this move on human interaction with game artifacts and consequently find out what should we expect from the discipline of interaction design while using ludic approaches in the next decade.

 More information:

http://ixdea.uniroma2.it/inevent/events/idea2010/index.php?s=102&link=call56

VR Bus Tour of Ancient Rome

Whoever said time travel wasn’t possible hasn’t heard of the Virtual Reality Bus, a 16-passenger transportation vehicle operated by Invisible Cities that uses powerful 3D technology to transport you back in time for a 30-minute ride through Rome during its heyday. What makes this immersive experience so unique is that there are no headsets. Instead, Invisible Cities uses large transparent 4K OLED screens installed in front of each window on the bus to deliver immersive 3D content. Using the curtains attached to each window this Magic School Bus of sorts teleports you back in time to ancient Rome. When the curtains are raised, passengers see a modern-day view of their surroundings. When lowered, they’re instantly transported 2,000 years in the past to ancient Rome.

This isn’t just a visual experience. The VR Bus incorporates other elements to really sell the experience. Along with the 4K OLED screens, the bus is also equipped with a three-axis accelerometer, a magnetometer, a velocimetry, and a surface laser that all come together to capture every bump, turn, and speed the bus is moving, and incorporate it into the virtual experience. Digital speakers inside of the bus help deliver a realistic audio experience that makes you think you’re driving through a crowd of ancient Romans, while a network of small vents deliver smells like frankincense, myrrh, charcoal, Guaita wood, birch, and vetiver grass as your drive past Temples, and hints of metallic aldehydes, civic musk, and cumin as you pass the Colosseum.

More information:

https://vrscout.com/news/this-vr-bus-takes-you-on-a-tour-of-ancient-rome/

Fully Autonomous Mobile Robot by Amazon

Amazon has introduced Proteus, its first fully autonomous mobile robot, to perform tasks and move safely in the vicinity of employees using proprietary safety, perception, and navigation systems. Proteus can lift and transport Amazon's wheeled GoCart trolleys, used to transfer packages through fulfillment and sorting facilities.

The robot will initially be used in the Amazon facilities’ outbound GoCart handling areas. The company also unveiled other automated systems, including the artificial intelligence-based Cardinal robot arm, which can choose and lift one package from a pile of boxes, read its label, and place it on the appropriate GoCart.

More information:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-unveils-first-fully-autonomous-mobile-robot-called-proteus