Design Brief

This product is intended to promote fencing. And it combines AR and other technologies to make more people like this sport through gamification.

Background

Even though fencing has a long history and has been an Olympic event since the very first Olympic Games, it is still not a very popular sport today, probably for the following reasons.

Research

Physical and mental health

Fencing also has many benefits for improving physical and mental health.

Devices

People urgently need to scientifically carry out sports activities while having fun and freedom, and wearable devices will be the key to achieve this goal. Wearable devices can achieve more convenient and efficient data collection. It can evaluate the user's physical fitness, exercise function, exercise load, etc. Prevent users from being injured by excessive exercise.

The addition of new media such as AR can break the traditional teaching model centered on fencing coaches. At the same time break the constraints of space and time. It makes the students' learning change from passive force-feeding to active exploration. The addition of new media has modernized fencing.

Gamification

Gamification can promote behavioral motivation. Therefore, the introduction of gamification can also allow users to better experience the fun of fencing. The essence of gamification design is —— goal (clear goal attracts player's attention), rules, voluntary (execution is voluntary), feedback (get clear feedback).

This coordinate axis is based on two dimensions in the research phase of this product. One is whether gamification is fun or not, and the other is whether there is equipment or no equipment corresponding to wearable devices. It can be seen that the ultimate goal of this product is to combine fun and equipment in the most organic way, so that users can get the best experience.

Questionnaire and Interview

In the part of the interview, two sports enthusiasts were briefly interviewed about this product and fencing-related needs. From their responses, key words are summarized as follows.

Rules Design

Two-player confrontation mode

For the judgment of offense and defense, there are two different methods for novices and veteran players. Novices need to complete a combination of fixed actions and make judgments through the sensors of wearable devices to achieve scoring or defense. In order to improve their mastery of movements.

For veterans, in order to enhance their experience, the method of determining the scoring area is adopted. If a virtual weapon is sensed in the scoring area, it will be judged as a score.

Single-player learning mode

The user can become more familiar with the movements, so as to improve the level and obtain a better game experience.

Hardware Design

AR mask

AR mask is the core of this product. It connects the virtual and real worlds and builds a platform for people to fencing anytime, anywhere.

Players will see their own virtual weapons and the opponent's virtual weapons in the mask, so as to conduct reasonable offense and defense. In the novice learning stage, players can see the standard movements through the mask and practice compared with their own.

Sword hilt Sensor

The sword hilt sensor can judge the player's movements and give some tactile feedback.

Leg movement tracker

The leg movement tracker can track the movement of the body and make judgments on the actions made by the players.

Conceptual Rendering

1. Realistic scene POV

This is the first perspective of the player after wearing the AR mask, which is the perspective in reality. A player can prepare for a game with another player who is also wearing the equipments. Then turn on the equipments on his body for game preparation.

2. Scene modeling POV

Then the camera on the AR mask scans the scene, and builds a virtual scene after the internal chip performs calculations, and then performs AR overlay display with the real scene.

3. AR mode POV

This is the AR screen that players will actually see in the game. It combines real scenes and virtual modeling, making players feel like they are in a virtual world even though they are in reality.

Play anytime, anywhere

In addition to the indoor fencing mentioned above, players can also do it outdoors. This equipment breaks the limitations of venues and time on fencing.

Simulated game usage scenarios