Physically interactive story environments

Most interactive stories, such as hypertext narratives and interactive movi es achieve an interactive "feel" by allowing the user to choose among multi ple story paths. In this paper we discuss physically interactive environmen ts with narrative structure in which the ability to choose among multiple s tory lines is replaced with having users, first, interact with the story ch aracters in small, local "windows" of the narrative and, second, actively e ngage their bodies in movement In particular, we found that compelling inte ractive narrative story systems can be perceived as highly responsive, enga ging, and interactive even when the overall story has a single-path structu re, in what we call a "less-choice, more-responsiveness" approach to the de sign of story-based interactive environments. We have also observed that un encumbering, rich sensor technology can facilitate user immersion in the ex perience as the story progresses-users can act as they typically would with out worrying about manipulating a computer interface. To support these argu ments, the paper describes the physical setup, the interactive story, the t echnology, and the user experience of four projects developed at the MIT Me dia Laboratory: KidsRoom, It/I, Personal Aerobics Trainer, and Swamped!.