The KidsRoom: A perceptually-based interactive and immersive story environment

The KidsRoom is a perceptually-based, interactive, narrative playspace for children. Images, music, narration, light, and sound effects are used to tr ansform a normal child's bedroom into a fantasy land where children are gui ded through a reactive adventure story. The fully automated system was desi gned with the following goals: (1) to keep the focus of user action and int eraction in the physical and not virtual space; (2) to permit multiple, col laborating people to simultaneously engage in an interactive experience com bining both real and virtual objects; (3) to use computer-vision algorithms to identify activity in the space without requiring the participants to we ar any special clothing or devices; (4) to use narrative to constrain the p erceptual recognition, and to use perceptual recognition to allow participa nts to drive the narrative; and (5) to create a truly immersive and interac tive room environment. We believe the KidsRoom is the first multi-person, fully-automated, interac tive, narrative environment ever constructed using non-encumbering sensors. This paper describes the KidsRoom, the technology that makes it work, and the issues that were raised during the system's development.(1)