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Subliminal advertising in shooter games: recognition effects of textual and pictorial brand logo

Understanding the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Kinect consoles in long-term care facilities

In recent years video game consoles, such as the Nintendo Wii™ and the Microsoft Kinect™, have been introduced into residential facilities. This paper presents a review of current studies documenting the benefits and detriments the Wii could have on adults aged 60 years and over in residential facilities, concentrating on the common uses of the Wii in care facilities: maintaining physical fitness, promoting mental well-being, encouraging social interaction and both physical and mental rehabilitation. Furthermore, this paper discusses the potential use of the Microsoft Kinect in care for older persons. The Wii can have a positive impact on the physical and mental health of older adults living in care facilities, but additional work should still be conducted, including assessing the use of games outside of Wii Sports and Wii Fit and possible non-gaming application of the Wii in care for older adults. Results for the Wii display potential for use of the Kinect in care facilities but further exploration is required to assess the potential physical impact and interaction viability.

Application of Yolov8 and Detectron2 for Bullet Hole Detection and Score Calculation From the Shooting Cards

The paper introduced an automatic score detection model using object detection techniques. The performance of sevenmodels belonging to two different architectural setups was compared. Models like YOLOv8n, YOLOv8s, YOLOv8m, RetinaNet-50, and RetinaNet-101 are single-shot detectors, while Faster RCNN-50 and Faster RCNN-101 belong to the two-shot detectors category. The dataset was manually captured from the shooting range and expanded by generating more versatile data using Python code. Before the dataset was trained to develop models, it was resized (640x640) and augmented using Roboflow API. The trained models were then assessed on the test dataset, and their performance was compared using matrices like mAP50, mAP50-90, precision, and recall. The results showed that YOLOv8 models can detect multiple objects with good confidence scores.

A Pattern-Based Game Mechanics Design Assistant

Video game designers iteratively improve player experience by play testing game software and adjusting its design. Deciding how to improve gameplay is difficult and time-consuming because designers lack an effective means for exploring decision alternatives and modifying a game’s mechanics. We aim to improve designer productivity and game quality by providing tools that speed-up the game design process. In particular, we wish to learn how patterns en- coding common game design knowledge can help to improve design tools. Micro-Machinations (MM) is a language and software library that enables game designers to modify a game’s mechanics at run-time. We propose a pattern-based approach for leveraging high-level design knowledge and facilitating the game design process with a game design assistant. We present the Mechanics Pattern Language (MPL) for encoding common MM structures and design intent, and a Mechanics Design Assistant (MeDeA) for analyzing, explaining and understanding existing mechanics, and generating, filtering, exploring and applying design alternatives for modifying mechanics. We implement MPL and MeDeA using the meta-programming language Rascal, and evaluate them by modifying the mechanics of a prototype of Johnny Jetstream, a 2D shooter developed at IC3D Media.

Inclusive Dialogues: WokeBot Engaging Diversity Dilemmas

In today's world, understanding different viewpoints is key for societal cohesion and progress. Robots have the potential to provide aid in discussing tough topics like ethnicity and gender. However, comparably to humans, the appearance of a robot can trigger inherent prejudices. This study delves into the interplay between robot appearance and decision-making in ethical dilemmas. Employing a Furhat robot that can change faces in an instant, we looked at how robot appearance affects decision-making and the perception of the robot itself. Pairs of participants were invited to discuss a dilemma presented by a robot, covering sensitive topics of ethnicity or gender. The robot either adopted a first-person or third-person perspective and altered its appearance accordingly. Following the explanation, participants were encouraged to discuss their choice of action in the dilemma situation. We did not find significant influences of robot appearance or dilemma topic on perceived anthropomorphism, animacy, likeability, or intelligence of the robot, partly in line with previous research. However, several participants hearing the dilemma from a first-person perspective changed their opinion because of the robot's appearance. Future work can expand with different measures such as engagement, in order to shed light on the intricate dynamics of human-robot interaction, emphasizing the need for thoughtful consideration in designing robot appearances to promote unbiased engagement in discussions of societal significance

A Discourse Community of Livebloggers?

Liveblogs are very popular with the public and journalists alike. The problem, though, is their credibility, given the uncertainty of the covered events and the immediacy of their production. Little is known about how journalists routinize the unexpected—to paraphrase Tuchman—when journalists report about an event that is still unfolding. This paper is about makers of liveblogs, livebloggers, so to speak, and the routines and conventions they follow. To better understand the relationship between those who do the “liveblogging” and how the “liveblogging” is done, we interviewed a selection of nine experienced livebloggers who cover breaking news, sports, and politics for the three most-visited news platforms in the Netherlands. Based on our results, we concluded that journalists working at different platforms follow similar routines and conventions for claiming, acquiring, and justifying knowledge. Journalists covering news in liveblogs must have expert knowledge, as well as technical and organizational skills. Liveblogging—in contrast to regular, online reporting—is best summarized as a social process instead of an autonomous production. These findings are important for three reasons: first, to understand how journalists cope with uncertainty covering events under immediate circumstances using liveblogs; second, to understand the workings of this popular format; and third, to contribute to literature about journalistic genres, discourse communities and, more specifically, generic requirements of liveblogs for effects of credibility to take place.