MARCH–APRIL 2015 INTERAC TIONS 31 INTERAC TIONS. ACM.ORG
>>>> smart watches, smart glasses,
sensing textiles, and big data.
Following the overall trend of
research in exercise, motivation, and
well-being, we now start to see work
that deals with actual sports and
sports performance. To promote HCI
research in sports, we organized a
workshop and a SIG at CHI 2014 in
Toronto. During a busy and inspiring
day, 22 people from 10 countries and
13 universities and companies got
together to discuss the direction of
sports HCI.
Let us briefly present some themes
that came up during our discussion
that we believe could benefit from
increased attention from the HCI
community.
Feedback, in real time—for
example, from coaches or mirrors—
is central for athletes striving to
understand their technique in various
sports. A challenge is to create
feedback that fits into the physical
setting and social context of the
athletic situation without breaking
the flow and experience of the user.
Bodily awareness and control.
Current lightweight interactive
technologies show potential for real-time feedback and use in sporting
activity. Thereby, athletes can gain
an improved sense for how they
perform the skills and techniques of
their sport.
Sociality is a central theme in
sports for athletes and coaches, as
well as for audiences. Technology
provides a means of enriching
the social aspects of sports for all
user groups by creating stronger
connections between athletes and
audiences, balancing skill levels,
creating collaborative activities, and
capturing and sharing activities.
Skill development. Technology can
support the development of skills
by providing real-time feedback on
performances and collecting data to
support post-activity analysis. It can
also support the practice of specific
skills through challenging and playful
activities.
This special section presents four
examples from the emerging research
area of sports and HCI, illustrating
these topics in more depth.
Stina Nylander is a senior researcher at
the Mobile Life Centre and SICS Swedish IC T.
Her research focuses on everyday use and
appropriation of mobile technology in various
domains, lately with an emphasis on sports
and technical maintenance.
→ stny@sics.se
Jakob Tholander is a senior researcher
and lecturer at the Mobile Life Centre and
Stockholm University. His research focuses on
embodied interaction in a variety of contexts,
lately with an emphasis on sports and high-intensity activities.
→ jakobth@dsv.su.se
Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller is director of
the Exertion Games Lab at RMI T University.
Previously, he was a Fulbright Scholar at
Stanford University and has worked at the
MIT Media Lab, Microsoft Research, Media
Lab Europe, FXPal, Xerox Parc, University of
Melbourne, and CSIRO.
→ floyd@exertiongameslab.org
Joe Marshall is a senior research
fellow at the Mixed Reality Lab, University
of Nottingham. He researches technology
for sports, physical play, and artistic
performance. His current project focuses on
the design of technology to be actively used
while moving or doing sports, supported by a
Leverhulme Trust Fellowship (ECF-2012-677).
→ joe.marshall@nottingham.ac.uk
DOI: 10.1145/2729712 © 2015 ACM 1072-5520/15/03 $15.00
32 FROM FIELD TO OFFICE
3 6 DESIGNING TRAINING GAMES FOR SOCCER
4 0 UNTANGLING RUNNING: DESIGNING FOR
REAL-LIFE RUNNER EXPERIENCES
4 4 MOTION GAMES IN REAL SPORTS ENVIRONMENTS
SPECIAL
TOPIC