An object tracking system for a tabletop board game

Abstract

Playing board games is one context where humans interact with each other. Recently the Egocentric Interaction Research Group at Malmö University piloted an interdisciplinary project to research this type of interaction. The research focus is to analyze the interaction between players while they are playing board games. However, empirical data needs to be gathered from gameplay to be able to draw conclusions about the interaction. In this thesis, the process of developing a prototype to collect event-based data is presented. A combination of marker tracking technology and depth sensing is used for tracking 2D markers as well as a single player in a tabletop environment. The system categorizes and stores basic events such as placing, removing, and changing the location of a 2D marker as well as logging a player’s rotation in relation to the table. This empirical data is believed to be helpful for future studies by the Egocentric Interaction Research Group. The system is validated through a test sequence.