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AR Facade Moves Beyond the Lab

Posted by Zonk on from the now-we-need-this-for-web-browsing dept.

Renata writes "Researchers from Georgia Tech's GVU Center have installed AR Façade at the Grand Auto Text exhibition at the Beall Center for Art and Technology in Irvine, CA. The AR Façade installation presents an augmented reality version of desktop-based game Façade. The exhibit marks the first time this elaborate augmented reality interactive drama has been seen outside the GVU lab. The AR Façade immersive drama presents the virtual characters of Façade inside a real, physical apartment. Players play the role of an old friend invited over for drinks at a make-or-break moment in the collapsing marriage of the reactive characters, Grace and Trip. While some players attempt to pacify the characters, others break the ice with comic relief, performing for friends who can observe the unfolding drama from outside the exhibit. The uneasy social situation becomes all too real as players are able to move freely throughout a physical apartment and use gestures and speech to interact with the autonomous characters who appear graphically imposed in the space using a video-mix head-mounted AR display. The three month long exhibition will be open to public until December 15th."

39 comments

  1. Threesome? by urcreepyneighbor · · Score: 1

    Players play the role of an old friend invited over for drinks at a make-or-break moment in the collapsing marriage of the reactive characters, Grace and Trip. Will a threesome be available at release or will that be in the expansion pack?
    --
    "The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
    1. Re:Threesome? by zero_offset · · Score: 3, Funny

      Rockstar Games denies the existence of threesome code in the original release.

      --

      Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005

  2. Jesus, Trip! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    BWAHAHAHA! It would be so fun to wach people play this in an AR!

    (Trip opens the front door.)

    TRIP:
    Nick!!

    TRIP:
    Ah I'm so happy you could make it! -- (interrupted)

    NICK:
    Hello sexy!

    TRIP:
    Dude, that is a weird way to say hello...

    1. Re:Jesus, Trip! by Dontgimmiethatlook · · Score: 0, Redundant

      It is funny to read some of the scripts after someone else has played it. [While Trip is in the kitchen] GRACE Adam, GRACE I'm... mmm... you've been a good friend for a long time, and I... [Trip enters] TRIP What was that? GRACE What? ADAM Nothing. TRIP Something's been happening in here... ADAM No there hasn't. TRIP ...Anyway, I was going to bring out some pesto infused sun dried tomatoes, but they need to marinate a little longer, so...

    2. Re:Jesus, Trip! by Dontgimmiethatlook · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It is funny to read some of the scripts after someone else has played it.



      [While Trip is in the kitchen]

      GRACE
      Adam,

      GRACE
      I'm... mmm... you've been a good friend for a long time, and I...

      [Trip enters]

      TRIP
      What was that?

      GRACE
      What?

      ADAM
      Nothing.

      TRIP
      Something's been happening in here...

      ADAM
      No there hasn't.

      TRIP
      ...Anyway, I was going to bring out some pesto infused sun dried tomatoes, but they need to marinate a little longer, so...

  3. Just like a real sandbox game by User+956 · · Score: 1

    While some players attempt to pacify the characters, others break the ice with comic relief, performing for friends who can observe the unfolding drama from outside the exhibit.

    So how many players just start stabbing everyone in the face?

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:Just like a real sandbox game by deniable · · Score: 1

      or ignore them and start looting the fridge. I could just see a couple having a domestic and some players are sitting on the couch trying to find porn on the TV.

    2. Re:Just like a real sandbox game by adatepej · · Score: 1

      What is up with the sex panther???? Are they paying you?

    3. Re:Just like a real sandbox game by Kyojin · · Score: 1

      It's a joke (product). Laugh.

    4. Re:Just like a real sandbox game by PhoenixOne · · Score: 1

      Why not? I've seen this sort of thing happen in real life.

      The technology isn't there yet but, if you ignore them or do something else anti-social, they should ask you to leave. If you don't go, Trip will push you out the door and lock it behind you.

      If you stab Trip in the face, Grace will scream and call the cops. If you kill her, well their you are, in a room with two dead bodies and nothing good on TV.

      I any case, the game will end and you'll either be frustrated or (hopefully) feel ill because you just killed two people (virtual or not).

      --
      Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
  4. Can I get one for Grey's anatomy by jhfry · · Score: 1

    I swear... if I could get one of these that could fool my girlfriend into thinking I'm "McDreamy". I'd be a VERY happy man, even if I have to put up with role playing all the drama!

    Oh wait, this is slashdot and I have a girlfriend... I guess I should just be happy with what I have!

    --
    Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
    1. Re:Can I get one for Grey's anatomy by ockegheim · · Score: 1

      Oh wait, this is slashdot and I have a girlfriend...


      You can only have one of these I'm afraid. You have a difficult choice ahead.

      --
      I’m old enough to remember 16K of memory being described as “whopping”
  5. For those of you unfamiliar, let me give brief inf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Academic SR is a reality enlarged version of the famous desktop based interactive theater, facade. Some experiments involving interactive entertainment virtual non-linear narrative, and without interaction enshrined. In RA Facade players moving into an apartment and that the use of gestures and speech to interact with two characters independently, travel and grace. Our experience of converting an office game based on the augmented reality sheds light on the problems of joint physical / virtual AI based on the Assembly and serves as a research tool emperically study of the relationship between the presence and participation. This is summary for you. Please ask any question desired. I know more.

  6. Killer App by jeremiahbell · · Score: 1

    I was concerned about the novelty waning, but now I see they've go a killer-app. European lesbian sex videos overlayed on reality, oh wait, that's my other tab . . .

    --
    "Where have all the good people gone?" - Jack Johnson
  7. you're kidding. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Couldn't they have done a murder mystery or something a little better than that soapy melodrama?

  8. Unimpressive by iMacGuy · · Score: 1

    I've been through AR Façade before, and no amount of AR would ever make up for what a terrible game Façade is. They think they have some awesome academic natural language game going on, but the parser is worse than practically any text adventure...

    (Wait, you have to put a subject in these things? Why?)

    --
    Why won't slashdot let me change my terrible username :(
    1. Re:Unimpressive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *snore* Drivel ignorance elsewhere, please.

    2. Re:Unimpressive by DingerX · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think you're being unfair here. They could very well have a supersweet natural language parser going on.
       
      It doesn't matter.
       
      The job of the avant garde is to scout the terrain ahead to avoid leading the army into a dead end or a massacre.
       
      Facade is definitely avant-garde; I'm just up in the air about whether it's a dead end or a massacre.
       
      Yes, the artwork is, well, ugly. The characters are not pleasant to look at, and the walk around like John Wayne in bad need of a box of ExLax. The narrative should suck you into the story, instead it just sucks. To play Trip's role, you need to care about and like the unhappy couple. Instead, you're confronted with two bitter, ugly creatures in an ugly apartment.
       
      But all that is beside the point. The core problem is the concept. This is supposed to explore computer games as interactive psychological drama, as a way to communicate rich emotional tones with subtle details. You are supposed to interact with the two AI characters about their relationship. But no parser can be fine enough to the task. So the user becomes immediately aware of the irreality of the situation: yes, they are fighting; no I don't think I'm ever going to be fed. I am supposed to do something, but whatever I type in doesn't get understood; or if it does, it's not understood correctly. I mean, it might work in a sort of "Premenstrual Eliza" kinda way, but it's not a game anyone really wants to play.

    3. Re:Unimpressive by iMacGuy · · Score: 1

      I should say, the AR part is really good. If you don't mind wearing video goggles and having a Powerbook strapped to your back, the game overlaid onto what's actually in front of you is very well-done and quite immersive. But I don't think they'll attract any attention by using it to play Façade; setting up a really uneasy social situation is one thing, but having Trip asking you the same question ten times, or picking a completely random unrelated conversation because it didn't understand you at all, isn't quite the same.

      --
      Why won't slashdot let me change my terrible username :(
    4. Re:Unimpressive by grumbel · · Score: 1

      I agree that when seen as a pure game Façade has it is problems. The text input often doesn't properly register and so most of the game runs on auto-pilot, the level of real interaction is pretty slim. However while Façade itself might not be the perfect game, it is a great demonstration of what games could be. You don't fire a single shot, no aliens involved, no puzzle, no real goal and basically almost nothing else that you would expect from a normal game. Instead you have an interactive story line that just moves along while you are participating in it and that is something you won't find in many other games and something that can be expanded up on.

      It is simply nice to see a game that isn't so focused on being gamey and instead purely focused on presenting an interactive story/environment. Don't think of it as a text adventure with 3d graphics or FPS without shooting, think of it as a first step to the HoloDeck. Other examples which get somewhat close are Fahrenheit, The Last Express and the first few minutes of HalfLife2 before you get a gun.

    5. Re:Unimpressive by Faylone · · Score: 1

      I don't know about Fahrenheit or The Last Express, but isn't HalfLife2 before you get a gun...an FPS without shooting?

  9. You GOTTA know where this is going... by hyades1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    So to those Slashdotters out there who have a girlfriend, or know what a girl is, here's your chance. Addict her to the joys of cutting-edge tech with the new take on that hoary old standby, the soap opera. Just think...one exposure to this and she'll be dragging you back to the scene of the crime again, and again, and again. You'll even be able to justify canceling that holiday in the Bahamas to buy the AR display and software.

    Then, the minute her back's turned, you can use the set-up for it's REAL purpose: interactive pr0n!

    By this time tomorrow, I'll be invested up to my neck in Vaseline and Kleenex futures. I'm gonna be RICH!!!!!!!!!!!

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  10. obvious first appication by Ruvim · · Score: 1

    PORN... of cause

  11. huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is about... AR-Facade prototypes in Grand Text Auto? For killing the cops/FBI/army/other criminal elements faster?

  12. Despite what everyone seems to think... by adatepej · · Score: 1

    ...they HAVE NOT completed the virtual reality porn machine.

    1. Re:Despite what everyone seems to think... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ....yet.

    2. Re:Despite what everyone seems to think... by psychicsword · · Score: 1

      damn and next week I have the weekend to myself and an empty house now I have to settle for ordinary porn :(

  13. You're all missing the point! by DragonTHC · · Score: 1

    LARPing is for emo fruits! Real men roll d20!

    --
    They're using their grammar skills there.
  14. Technologically it's not quite impressive by S3D · · Score: 1

    They didn't manage to get acceptable stability of the camera tracking. The superimposed models are wobbling on the video backgound. Usually biggest problem of wearable/mobile AR is due to insufficient CPU power of the handheld, which do tracking. Complete 3d image tracking is quite computationally expensive. But here they have big laptop strapped to back, and still get tracking quality of handheld. With powerful laptop they could get a lot of feature points extracted or have image otherwise stabilized in real time.

    1. Re:Technologically it's not quite impressive by blairmacintyre · · Score: 3, Informative

      While many of the comments are pretty amusing, I thought I'd reply to this one.

      The registration between the characters and the world is negatively affected by a variety of things including
      (a) the original facade rendering engine does not use real 3D perspective, and converting (due to the way trip and grace are procedurally rendered) would have been a huge undertaking; we spent some time on this and decided it wasn't going to be worth the effort, in the end. So they appear to float as they move away from the player and don't perfectly align with things like the door or bar
      (b) the lighting it the room (at Georgia Tech) was not quite good enough for the tracker (which uses a camera to track markers on the ceiling); the lighting in the room at the Beall Center is much better. We didn't have the money to upgrade the lighting in the lab just for this experiment so it's a little jittery :)
      (c) this is an open system, meaning the graphics, camera and tracker are not tightly synchronized (since the tracker is a separate commercial product running in parallel to the rest of the system). So there are slight misalignments there caused by the lack of sync

      We are not doing any computer vision through the camera that is looking forward into the room; I don't do computer vision research, although it's obviously going to be important to integrate such things into a real system. Unfortunately, tracking natural features reliably (relative to a known baseline) and integrating those points with the rest of the system for stable pose estimation is not at the "cheap commodity" level yet, although some products are getting tantalizingly close (e.g., the Total Immersion stuff). If someone wants to solve that one and put it on SourceForge, send me a link. :)

  15. Re:For those of you unfamiliar, let me give brief by zero_offset · · Score: 2, Funny

    Please ask any question desired. I know more.

    Is the Euler-Mascheroni Constant irrational?

    --

    Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005

  16. Depends, US, EU or JP release? by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In the US release, you can commit a double homicide as long as everyone keeps their clothes on. In the EU release you can have any combination of sex but no blood. In the JP release... Well lets no go there shall we. Tentacles probably will be included.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  17. VR Soap Opera by skeptictank · · Score: 1
    In next weeks episode Grace discovers that Trip is actually John, her long lost half brother by marriage twice removed. He lost his memory in a car accident and then Nick's evil Uncle had his faced changed by a plastic surgeon in Argentina. John is now convince that he is Trip and has forgotten that he is a world famous brain surgeon and impressionist painter. Meanwhile, Trip discovers that Grace had a baby out of wedlock when she was a teenager - 2 years ago. The baby is now a 17 year old orphan living in an orphanage in Argentina. Will Trip travel to Argentina to find the truth about Grace? Will he discover he is actually John, a world famous brain surgeon and impressionist painter? Will he be able to do brain surgery on himself to recover his lost memories? And what about Grace? Will she discover that the baby she thought had died at birth was taken by the monks to the Orphanage? Will she discover that Trip knows about her first pregnancy? And what about Nick, do Grace and John suspect the truth?

    Tune in next week folks!

  18. WHERE?!! by randyjg2 · · Score: 1

    The demo is in California. Most technical demos and convention are in California. Doesn't anybody think that Chicago residents are interested in more technical stuff than advanced cow tipping? Unlike California, Chicago has not had a major disaster in over a century (unless you count the Democratic conventions).

    Common technical exhibitors, there are three million people here starved for advanced technology conventions and a major financial center as a source of investors.

  19. Hitting on Grace, pretty sad, pathetic by NotmyNick · · Score: 1

    Confronted with a marriage in trouble, most seem to think of it as an opportunity to scam on the wife

    --
    Notmysig
    1. Re:Hitting on Grace, pretty sad, pathetic by GammaKitsune · · Score: 1

      In my defense, I was playing as a woman during the attempt.

      --
      Gamertag: WyleType
  20. Game? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What a dumb "game". Most typical gamers have no interest in a simulated social gathering. In fact I can't think of anything less hated by introverted geeks than social interaction. One can only hope this technology being developed is used for something worthwhile or entertaining some day, not to pretend you're visiting your pretend friends!