(the system setup)
(the hider's view of the game)
Users have preinstalled maps of each other’s homes on their consoles (a PC with touchscreen). By selecting and dragging icons onto various positions on the map, the user places virtual gifts (or hiding points) at locations in the remote person’s house. These hiding points are transmitted to the grandson’s console through the internet, but are kept hidden from him. The aim of the game is to move around the home to find the gifts. This user waves a “magic wand” (a Bluetooth-enabled PDA) around each room looking for invisible gifts that can only be found by the wand. As the child moves around the house, his location is tracked on the other person’s computer. During the play, there is constant voice communication. The hider uses a touch screen to allocate virtual gifts in the seeker’s location. A selection of default gifts (comic characters) is provided for the hider to choose from. When a gift is found (represented by the wand landing on a comic character), a sound reward is played to both the hider and the seeker. The toggle button provides both players with the ability to interchange their roles in the game.
Source: Vetere, F., Nolan, M., and Raman, R. A. 2006. Distributed hide-and-seek. In Proceedings of the 20th Conference of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group (CHISIG) of Australia on Computer-Human Interaction: Design: Activities, Artefacts and Environments (OZCHI’06). ACM Press, 325–328.