AR Facade Moves Beyond the Lab

Renata writes "Researchers from Georgia Tech's GVU Center have installed AR Façade at the Grand Auto Text exhibition at the Beall Center for Art and Technology in Irvine, CA. The AR Façade installation presents an augmented reality version of desktop-based game Façade. The exhibit marks the first time this elaborate augmented reality interactive drama has been seen outside the GVU lab. The AR Façade immersive drama presents the virtual characters of Façade inside a real, physical apartment. Players play the role of an old friend invited over for drinks at a make-or-break moment in the collapsing marriage of the reactive characters, Grace and Trip. While some players attempt to pacify the characters, others break the ice with comic relief, performing for friends who can observe the unfolding drama from outside the exhibit. The uneasy social situation becomes all too real as players are able to move freely throughout a physical apartment and use gestures and speech to interact with the autonomous characters who appear graphically imposed in the space using a video-mix head-mounted AR display. The three month long exhibition will be open to public until December 15th."

Re:Jesus, Trip!

[Dontgimmiethatlook]

It is funny to read some of the scripts after someone else has played it.



[While Trip is in the kitchen]

GRACE
Adam,

GRACE
I'm... mmm... you've been a good friend for a long time, and I...

[Trip enters]

TRIP
What was that?

GRACE
What?

ADAM
Nothing.

TRIP
Something's been happening in here...

ADAM
No there hasn't.

TRIP
...Anyway, I was going to bring out some pesto infused sun dried tomatoes, but they need to marinate a little longer, so...

Re:Unimpressive

[DingerX]

I think you're being unfair here. They could very well have a supersweet natural language parser going on.
 
It doesn't matter.
 
The job of the avant garde is to scout the terrain ahead to avoid leading the army into a dead end or a massacre.
 
Facade is definitely avant-garde; I'm just up in the air about whether it's a dead end or a massacre.
 
Yes, the artwork is, well, ugly. The characters are not pleasant to look at, and the walk around like John Wayne in bad need of a box of ExLax. The narrative should suck you into the story, instead it just sucks. To play Trip's role, you need to care about and like the unhappy couple. Instead, you're confronted with two bitter, ugly creatures in an ugly apartment.
 
But all that is beside the point. The core problem is the concept. This is supposed to explore computer games as interactive psychological drama, as a way to communicate rich emotional tones with subtle details. You are supposed to interact with the two AI characters about their relationship. But no parser can be fine enough to the task. So the user becomes immediately aware of the irreality of the situation: yes, they are fighting; no I don't think I'm ever going to be fed. I am supposed to do something, but whatever I type in doesn't get understood; or if it does, it's not understood correctly. I mean, it might work in a sort of "Premenstrual Eliza" kinda way, but it's not a game anyone really wants to play.