Out of the Cube: Augmented Rubik's Cube

Computer gaming habits have a tendency to evolve with technology, the best being ones that immerse both our imagination and intellect. Here, we describe a new game platform, an Augmented Reality Rubik's cube. The cube acts simultaneously as both the controller and the game board. Gameplay is controlled by the cube, and game assets are rendered on top of it. Shuffling and tilting operations on the cube are mapped to game interaction. We discuss the game design decisions involved in developing a game for this platform, as well as the technological challenges in implementing it. Ultimately, we describe two games and discuss the conclusions of an informal user study based on those games. 1. Introduction Augmented Reality (AR), where computer-generated graphics is rendered and registered on the real world in real time, has existed as an academic field since the 60’s. As anticipated by Bolter and Grusin [1], AR is now gaining wider public acceptance as AR applications are being demonstrated in art, entertainment, and gaming. In 2007, the first commercial AR game was produced. In The Eye of Judgment (http://www.eyeofjudgment.com/) an AR game for the Sony Play Station, a special set of board and cards was designed. Since the Eye of Judgment saw light, a constantly increasing number of commercial AR games are developed every year, motivating research for AR game technologies. In this work, we present a game technology that extends an existing game platform, a toy. While some game platforms are developed and tailored to support AR experiences (e.g., The Eye of Judgment game board), others can be based on existing ones. For example, augmenting regular cards may lay the foundations for a new game technology based on an existing game platform. One of the advantages in exploiting an existing game platform (e.g., cards) to create new digital experiences lies in the fact that people are familiar with the underlying game mechanics (e.g., pile cards). In addition, although the game uses a tangible platform, distributing it becomes a simpler task. For example, the software for the game can be downloaded online. Augmented Reality game technologies that revolve around familiar game platforms can exploit the interactions of the underlying platform. For example, piles of cards could translate to grouping models represented by those cards. In many cases, it seems natural to preserve the meaning of interactions in the underlying platform and map them to the AR experience. Furthermore, new game interactions are made possible with meaning only within the scope of the extended AR