Advances in emerging technologies, such as on-body mechanical actuators and electrical muscle stimulation, have allowed computers to take control over our bodies. This presents opportunities as well as challenges, raising fundamental questions about agency and the role of our bodies when interacting with technology. To advance this research field as a whole, we brought together expert perspectives in a week-long seminar to articulate the grand challenges that should be tackled when it comes to the design of computers’ control over our bodies. These grand challenges span technical, design, user, and ethical aspects. By articulating these grand challenges, we aim to begin initiating a research agenda that positions bodily control not only as a technical feature but as a central, experiential, and ethical concern for future human–computer interaction endeavors.

We reappraise the idea of colliding with robots, moving from a position that tries to avoid or mitigate collisions to one that considers them an important facet of human interaction. We report on a soma design workshop that explored how our bodies could collide with telepresence robots, mobility aids and a quadruped robot. Based on our findings, we employed soma trajectories to analyse collisions as extended experiences that negotiate key transitions of consent, preparation, launch, contact, ripple, sting, untangle, debris and reflect. We then employed these ideas to analyse two collision experiences, an accidental collision between a person and a drone and the deliberate design of a robot to play with cats, revealing how real-world collisions involve the complex and ongoing entanglement of soma trajectories. We discuss how viewing collisions as entangled trajectories, or ‘tangles’, can be used analytically, as a design approach, and as a lens to broach ethical complexity.

Recent combinations of interactive technology, humans, and water have resulted in “WaterHCI”. WaterHCI design seeks to complement the many benefits of engagement with the aquatic domain, by offering, for example, augmented reality systems for snorkelers, virtual reality in floatation tanks, underwater musical instruments for artists, robotic systems for divers, and wearables for swimmers. We conducted a workshop in which WaterHCI experts articulated the field's grand challenges, aiming to contribute towards a systematic WaterHCI research agenda and ultimately advance the field.

Human–computer integration is an HCI trend in which computational machines can have agency, i.e., take control. Our work focuses on a particular form of integration in which the user and the computational machine share agency over the user's body, that is, can simultaneously (in contrast to a traditional turn-taking approach) control the user's body. The result is a user experience where the agency of the user and the computational machine is so intertwined that it is often no more discernable who contributed what to what extent; we call this “intertwined integration”. Due to the recency of advanced technologies enabling intertwined integration systems, we find that little understanding and documented design knowledge exist. To begin constructing such an understanding, we use three case studies to propose two key dimensions (“awareness of machine's agency” and “alignment of machine's agency”) to articulate a design space for intertwined integration systems. We differentiate four roles that computational machines can assume in this design space (angel, butler, influencer, and adversary). Based on our craft knowledge gained through designing such intertwined integration systems, we discuss strategies to help designers create future systems. Ultimately, we aim at advancing the HCI field's emerging understanding of sharing agency.

Interest in combining interactive play and the human body, using “bodily play” systems, is increasing. While these systems primarily prioritize a player's control over their bodily actions, we see intriguing possibilities in the pursuit of “limited control over the body” as an intriguing design resource for bodily play systems. In this paper, we use three of our bodily play systems to illustrate how designers can engage with limited control over the body by varying the player's degree of indirect control (for instance, via other bodily activity and external triggers). We also propose four strategies for employing limited control over the body: Exploration, Reflection, Learning and Embracement. We hope our own work and the strategies developed from it will assist designers to employ limited control over the body, ultimately helping people benefit from engaging their bodies through play.

In this paper, we reflect on the applicability of the concept of trajectories to soma design. Soma design is a first-person design method which considers users’ subjective somatic or bodily experiences of a design. Due to bodily changes over time, soma experiences are inherently temporal. Current instruments for articulating soma experiences lack the power to express the effects of experiences on the body over time. To address this, we turn to trajectories, a well-known concept in the HCI community, as a way of mapping this aspect of soma experience. By showing trajectories through a range of dimensions, we can articulate individual experiences and differences in those experiences. Through analysis of a set of soma experience designs and a set of temporal dimensions within the experiences, this paper demonstrates how trajectories can provide a practical conceptual framing for articulating the temporal complexity of soma designs.

As computer interfaces spread across and even into our bodies, so we find ourselves engaged in ever more deeply connected bodily interactions. From the mouse and keyboard, to wearables and gestural...

Background: Exertion games are video games that require exercise. They are widely presented as health interventions, to encourage sedentary populations to take exercise at levels recommended by health professionals. Objectives: We consider whether games encourage acute exercise at levels sufficient to engender exercise-related health benefits, and in what conditions that occurs. Methods: In this article, we performed a scoping review of empirical research that examines whether exertion game play engenders exercise, searching Google Scholar, Scopus, and PubMed. Results: From 3171 search records, we found 243 studies of acute short-term exercise in games. While some observed moderate levels of exertion, players of many games fail to meet recommended levels. Few games encouraged vigorous levels seen in sports. Variation in results for games across different studies suggests that exertion motivation is highly dependent on nongame contextual factors. There is evidence games make exercise more enjoyable or reduce perceived exertion, but many studies suffer the methodological problem of comparison with boring control conditions. Conclusions: Exergames have only been found comparable to exercise such as walking, jogging, and dancing under very specific circumstances. To improve evidence for games as exercise interventions, we must improve study designs and focus on understanding better the circumstances likely to bring about genuine exergame exercise.

We report on a somaesthetic design workshop and the subsequent analytical work aiming to demystify what is entailed in a non-dualistic design stance on embodied interaction and why a first-person engagement is crucial to its unfoldings. However, as we will uncover through a detailed account of our process, these first-person engagements are deeply entangled with second- and third-person perspectives, sometimes even overlapping. The analysis furthermore reveals some strategies for bridging the body-mind divide by attending to our inner universe and dissolving or traversing dichotomies between inside and outside ; individual and social ; body and technology . By detailing the creative process, we show how soma design becomes a process of designing with and through kinesthetic experience, in turn letting us confront several dualisms that run like fault lines through HCI’s engagement with embodied interaction.

Human-Computer Integration (HInt) is an emerging paradigm in which computational and human systems are closely interwoven. Integrating computers with the human body is not new. however, we believe that with rapid technological advancements, increasing real-world deployments, and growing ethical and societal implications, it is critical to identify an agenda for future research. We present a set of challenges for HInt research, formulated over the course of a five-day workshop consisting of 29 experts who have designed, deployed and studied HInt systems. This agenda aims to guide researchers in a structured way towards a more coordinated and conscientious future of human-computer integration.

We report on a workshop bringing together researchers working in soma design and sensory misalignment. Creating experiences that make use of sensory misalignment has become increasingly common, often associated with virtual reality research. However, little attention has been paid to how to design such experiences. We argue that the practice of soma design is a relevant candidate method for designing misalignment experiences, since soma design brings with it concepts such as estrangement and disrupting the habitual as a path to design. We further argue that sensory misalignment may in turn extend soma design methods, adding methods for explicitly disrupting sensory perception using technology interventions. Finally, we draw on the findings of that workshop to discuss the ideas of: pluralism in experience; orchestration of overall experience; as well as the broader intersection of soma design and sensory misalignment approaches.

Many people enjoy “vertigo” sensations caused by intense playful bodily activities such as spinning in circles, and riding fairground rides. Game scholar Caillois calls such experiences “vertigo play,” elucidating that these enjoyable activities are a result of confusion between sensory channels. In HCI, designers are often cautious to avoid deliberately causing sensory confusion in players, but we believe there is an opportunity to transition and extend Caillois’ thinking to the digital realm, allowing designers to create novel and intriguing digital bodily experiences inspired by traditional vertigo play activities. To this end, we present the Digital Vertigo Experience framework. Derived from four case studies and the development of three different digital vertigo experiences, this framework aims to bring the excitement of traditional vertigo play experiences to the digital world, allowing designers to create more engaging and exciting body-based games, and provides players with more possibilities to enjoy novel and exciting play experiences.

When we use digital systems to stimulate the senses, we typically stimulate only a subset of users' senses, leaving other senses stimulated by the physical world. This creates potential for misalignment between senses, where digital and physical stimulation give conflicting signals to users. We synthesize knowledge from HCI, traditional entertainments, and underlying sensory science research relating to how senses work when given conflicting signals. Using this knowledge we present a design dimension of sensory alignment, and show how this dimension presents opportunities for a range of creative strategies ranging from full alignment of sensory stimulation, up to extreme conflict between senses.

Direct touch between people is a key element of social behaviour. Recently a number of researchers have explored games which sense aspects of such interpersonal touch to control interaction with a multiplayer computer game. In this paper, we describe a long term, in-the-wild study of a two-player arcade game which is controlled by gentle touching between the body parts of two players. We ran the game in a public videogame arcade for a year, and present a thematic analysis of 27 hours of gameplay session videos, organized under three top level themes: control of the system, interpersonal interaction within the game, and social interaction around the game. In addition, we provide a quantitative analysis of observed demographic differences in interpersonal touch behaviour. Finally, we use these results to present four design recommendations for use of interpersonal touch in games.

Virtual reality experiences typically isolate the user from the real world. Notions of immersion are conventionally associated with the idea of convincing users that they are in another place, disassociated from physical reality. Given the user is however situated in that physical reality, kinesthetic bodily sensations often conflict with the virtual reality. In this paper we seek to elucidate the challenges associated with developing Visual-Kinaesthetic Experiences - experiences which provide related visual and kinaesthetic spectacle. Rather than use complex motion platforms, we submit here that physical reality is replete with interesting kinaesthetic experiences, which may be repurposed by the application of new visuals to create engaging hybrid experiences. We approach this by describing the development and deployment of Oscillate - a virtual reality experience that takes place on a swing, using it as an example to draw out what makes such experiences intrinsically interesting, and to construct three design challenges for this space.

HCI often requires scholars to build upon research from fields outside their expertise, creating the risk that foundational work is misunderstood and misrepresented. The prevailing goal of "exergames" research towards ameliorating obesity appears to be built on just such a misunderstanding of health research. In this paper, we analyse all citations to a single influential study, which has been extensively cited to justify research on exergames. We categorise the 375 citations based on whether they represent the findings of that study accurately or inaccurately. Our findings suggest that 69% of exergames papers citing this study misrepresent the findings, demonstrating a systematic failure of scholarship in exergames research. We argue that exergaming research should cease focusing on games as treatment for obesity, and that HCI publications should demand more critical and scholarly engagement with research from outside HCI.

The use of technology while being mobile now takes place in many areas of people's lives in a wide range of scenarios, for example users cycle, climb, run and even swim while interacting with devices. Conflict between locomotion and system use can reduce interaction performance and also the ability to safely move. We discuss the risks of such "interaction in motion", which we argue make it desirable to design with locomotion in mind. To aid such design we present a taxonomy and framework based on two key dimensions: relation of interaction task to locomotion task, and the amount that a locomotion activity inhibits use of input and output interfaces. We accompany this with four strategies for interaction in motion. With this work, we ultimately aim to enhance our understanding of what being "mobile" actually means for interaction, and help practitioners design truly mobile interactions.

Non-digital forms of play that allow players to direct brute force directly upon each other, such as martial arts, boxing and full contact team sports, are very popular. However, inter-player brutality has largely been unexplored as a feature of digital gaming. In this paper, we describe the design and study of 2 multi-player games that encourage players to use brute force directly against other players. Balance of Power is a tug-of-war style game implemented with Xbox Kinect, while Bundle is a playground-inspired chasing game implemented with smartphones. Two groups of five participants (n=10) played both games while being filmed, and were subsequently interviewed. A thematic analysis identified five key components of the brutal multiplayer video game experience, which informs a set of seven design considerations. This work aims to inspire the design of engaging game experiences based on awareness and enjoyment of our own and others' physicality.

Vertigo can be described as an attempt to momentarily destroy the stability of perception and inflict a kind of voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind. Vertigo has, however, not been generally considered as a design resource and we believe it to be under-explored in the area of digital bodily play. To investigate how vertigo could be considered as a design resource in this context, we conducted a review of relevant literature and held a design workshop with nine students to explore the potential of vertigo as a design resource for digital bodily play. From our exploration we identify five key design themes that designers might consider when designing a Vertigo Experience. Through this work we hope to encourage designers of bodily play experiences to consider vertigo as a design resource in their games.

We present a study of how filmmakers collected and visualized physiological data—“biodata”—to construct a series of short promotional films depicting people undergoing “thrilling” experiences. Drawing on ethnographic studies of two major advertising campaigns, we highlight key concerns for integrating sensors and sensor data into film production. Our findings address the perceived benefits of using biodata within narratives; the nature of different on-screen representations of biodata; and the challenges presented when integrating biodata into production processes. Drawing on this, we reconsider the nature of information visualization in the filmmaking context. Further implications from our case studies provide recommendations for human--computer interaction (HCI) collaborations with filmmaking and broadcast industries, focusing both on the practical matters of fitting sensor technologies into and handling data within production workflows, as well as discussing the broader implications for managing the veracity of that data within professional media production.

We explore the approach of performance-led research in the wild in which artists drive the creation of novel performances with the support of HCI researchers that are then deployed and studied at public performance in cultural settings such as galleries, festivals and on the city streets. We motivate the approach and then describe how it consists of three distinct activities -- practice, studies and theory -- that are interleaved in complex ways through nine different relationships. We present a historical account of how the approach has evolved over a fifteen-year period, charting the evolution of a complex web of projects, papers, and relationships between them. We articulate the challenges of pursuing each activity as well as overarching challenges of balancing artistic and research interests, flexible management of relationships, and finally ethics.

We argue for deliberately and systematically creating uncomfortable interactions as part of powerful cultural experiences. We identify the potential benefits of uncomfortable interactions under the general headings of entertainment, enlightenment and sociality. We then review artworks and performances that have employed discomfort, including two complementary examples from the worlds of entertainment and performance. From this, we articulate a suite of tactics for designing four primary forms of discomfort referred to as visceral, cultural, control and intimate. We discuss how moments of discomfort need to be embedded into an overall experience which requires a further consideration of the dramatic acts of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement. Finally, we discuss an ethical framework for uncomfortable interactions which leads us to revisit key issues of consent, withdrawal, privacy and risk.

Several emerging strands of HCI involve connecting physical exercise activity with digital interactive systems to create intense combined experiences, for example pervasive games, GPS based exercise games and 'exertion interfaces'. Many of these systems are mobile, used outside in public, whilst moving quickly through the environment. In this paper, we argue that the combination of moving fast and interacting with a digital system allows us to create a powerfully intense experience for participants, and that key to this is careful attention to the way in which movement is combined with digital content.

Emerging robotic technologies are enabling the control of individual seats on rollercoasters and other thrill rides. We explore the potential of breathing as an effective and engaging way of driving this. Observations and interviews from trials of an enhanced bucking bronco ride show that breath-control is fun, challenging and intelligible, and reveal riders-x tactics as they battled the machine. We conclude that breath control is feasible and appropriate for controlling rides, unpack its important characteristics, and consider how it might be built into future ride systems. We argue that the combination of voluntary and involuntary factors in breathing is especially appealing for controlling rides as it balances game-like elements of skill and learning against the thrill of surrendering control to the machine.

We explore the ways in which interfaces can be designed to deceive users so as to create the illusion of magic. We present a study of an experimental performance in which a magician used a computer vision system to conduct a series of illusions based on the well-known 'three cups' magic trick. We explain our findings in terms of the two broad strategies of misdirecting attention and setting false expectations, articulating specific tactics that were employed in each case. We draw on existing theories of collaborative and spectator interfaces, ambiguity and interpretation, and trajectories through experiences to explain our findings in broader HCI terms. We also extend and integrate current theory to provide refined sensitising concepts for analysing deceptive interactions.

I Seek the Nerves Under Your Skin is a wearable audio performance which uses the intense physical activity of sprinting to alter the state of mind of a person listening to a poem. Running hard causes their state of mind to echo the intense emotions of the poet who is performing the poem.

We perceive just a tiny proportion of the phenomena that surround us everyday. Sensory Threads is a technologically mediated collective sensing expedition which allows people to explore imperceptible phenomena in the world around them. We present a description of the technical system and reflect on our design decisions. Key questions we are concerned with centre around how to represent imperceptible phenomena in real time both inside a building, and outside, and how to engender a sense of collective engagement. We also consider the value created through the multi-disciplinary work involved in constructing such an experience.

This paper charts the distinctive challenges of designing mobile experiences for cyclists and presents two studies of mobile cycle-based experiences: one a heritage tour; the other an exploration of a city at dusk involving recording and listening to personal stories. To understand the cyclists' experiences questionnaires, interviews and observations are drawn on to derive eight lessons for designing cycle-based interaction including: cycling proficiency, physicality, impact of the environment, media and hardware design, collaboration, and safety. The conclusion is that design has to respect the distinctive nature of cycling as a mode of transport and needs to carefully interweave moments of interaction with it.

This proposal is for a discussion of the HCI and artistic performance issues presented by the use of interactive systems in live performances, with reference to a novel system designed to track a juggling performer and create audio visual accompaniments based on their movements.

The authors will introduce and demonstrate a novel computer vision based system for augmented performance. Unlike previous systems, which have primarily focused on 'high art' forms such as modern dance, this system is designed for use during a juggling performance. The system allows a juggler to interact with a computer through their movements, and the movements of the balls, to create audio and visual projections which respond to their performance. This system has been designed in an iterative process involving amateur and professional performers, in order to create a system which is truly accessible. In particular, this project takes inspiration from mass market interactive entertainment and has been developed to only use commodity hardware and to be easily distributable, in order to allow it to be used within the small, self funded groups common in the circus arts community.

This paper describes and evaluates a novel set of approaches to handle situations where multiple distinct and visually differing objects are tracked, such as tracking of people and objects they are manipulating. Unlike tracking of multiple similar objects, visually different interacting objects can provide an opportunity to improve the tracking accuracy. These approaches are designed for use with Condensation/Particle Filter based algorithms, and allow drop-in replacement of tracker modules for each object type tracked. They use information about the relationships and interactions between objects to improve the tracking, rather than in order to distinguish between the objects, as in current algorithms. They are also designed to be highly efficient, for real time use. The approaches are tested on a challenging set of real data and achieve tracking performance similar to using a single very high dimensional tracker, but with vastly reduced complexity and hence much better time performance. 1

Implementing first-class continuations can pose a challenge if the target machine makes no provisions for accessing and re-installing the run-time stack. In this paper, we present a novel translation that overcomes this problem. In the first half of the paper, we introduce a theoretical model that shows how to eliminate the capture and the use of first-class continuations in the presence of a generalized stack inspection mechanism. The second half of the paper explains how to translate this model into practice in two different contexts. First, we reformulate the servlet interaction language in the PLT Web server, which heavily relies on first-class continuations. Using our technique, servlet programs can be run directly under the control of non-cooperative web servers such as Apache. Second, we show how to use our new technique to copy and reconstitute the stack on MSIL.Net using exception handlers. This establishes that Scheme's first-class continuations can exist on non-cooperative virtual machines.