University of Salford Logo University of Salford Logo

Thinklab

Envisioning Digital Futures

Thinklab

  • Home
  • Enterprise
  • Innovation
  • Research
  • Our Facilities
  • Our People
  • News
  • Home
  • Enterprise
  • BBC: Exploring volcanoes through gaming

BBC: Exploring volcanoes through gaming

The problem

BBC Learning runs a series of events throughout the year that, depending on the subject matter, can be for audiences ranging from children to adults.

They asked us to develop a gaming platform that could be customised to present different learning opportunities suitable for each audience.

In this instance the subject matter was designed to introduce the science behind volcanic explosions.

Our solution

We designed and built a two-player Volcano Game.

Featuring a touchless, gesture-based interface based on depth sensor technology and OpenNI middleware SDK, the game allowed players to explore a 3km tropical island, with lakes, bays and a central volcano cone rising to 340m.

As they explored, the players could use their body gestures to change various properties of the island’s volcano such as gaseous content, crystal content, silica and magma flow.

By adjusting these variables, the players affected the type and intensity of the volcanic eruption and this provided the learning opportunity for the audience.

Five different gestures were implemented with additional ones possible, including leg, arm and torso tracking. The gesture interface managed two different users and could track their position in relation to each other, so it would understand if they swapped places.  

The platform was customisable at different levels allowing it to present suitable data for each audience.

  1. The gesture interface could be redefined to accommodate new, replacement or alternative gestures.
  2. The environment could be redesigned including both the terrain shape and type of natural environment.
  3. The game mode could be changed from 1st to 3rd person.
  4. Different game play could be implemented, including the game objectives and methods.
THINKlab
THINKlab
  • Vimeo
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
Tweets by THINKlabsalford

    Contact

    THINKlab
    7th Floor Maxwell Building
    University of Salford
    Salford
    M5 4WT

    +44 (0)161 295 6579
    thinklab@salford.ac.uk

    Simon Hadfield, Facilities Co-ordinator

    s.j.hadfield@salford.ac.uk

    Recent Posts

    • THINKlab Special Issue: ‘Sustainability of Post-Disaster Recovery’
    • Building resilience to respond to extreme weather events
    • Dr Kaushal Keraminiyage attends the ‘Sixth Global Summit of Research Institutes for Disaster Risk Reduction’
    • Research Fellowship at the University of Salford to Conduct Frontier Research in Complex Urban Systems.
    • Novel Digital Toolset for Supporting Community engagement to strengthen disaster resilience in Salford

    Recent Comments

      Archives

      • April 2023
      • February 2023
      • August 2022
      • March 2022
      • February 2022
      • December 2021
      • November 2021
      • September 2021
      • May 2021
      • February 2021
      • January 2021
      • December 2020
      • November 2020
      • August 2020
      • July 2020
      • June 2020
      • May 2020
      • March 2020
      • February 2020
      • January 2020
      • December 2019
      • November 2019
      • September 2019
      • August 2019
      • May 2019
      • November 2018
      • October 2018
      • September 2018
      • August 2018
      • July 2018
      • November 2017
      • October 2017
      • March 2017
      • November 2016
      • August 2016
      • June 2016
      • April 2016
      • February 2016
      • January 2016
      • December 2015
      • October 2015
      • September 2015
      • August 2015
      • June 2015
      • May 2015
      • April 2015

      Categories

      • Enterprise
      • Events
      • Festival of Research
      • Green Impact
      • MOBILISE
      • RenoZEB
      • Research Centre for Resilient and Smart Cities
      • THINKlab Projects
      • TRANSCEND
      • Uncategorized

      Meta

      • Log in
      • Entries feed
      • Comments feed
      • WordPress.org

      © 2023 University of Salford.