Texture
NOTE: Distance Lab became part of the Glasgow School of Art Innovation School in October 2010.
This is a snapshot of the Lab's web site around July 2010 for historical reference.
Distance Lab
about
people
projects

news
database
events
partnership
recruitment
contact
home

Copyright © Distance Lab Limited.
All rights reserved.


Visit the online boutique of our first spin-off company...

Lost Values

Remote Impact

Boxing over a Distance

Florian 'Floyd' Mueller, Matthew Karau, Stefan Agamanolis, Costas Bissas, Cindy Jeffers, Elena Corchero, Richard Wilson, Andrea Taylor, Paula Nichols, Angus Aitken, Tomoko Hayashi, Hilary Grant

Remote Impact is a "Sports over a Distance" boxing game that enables a full body contact experience between geographically distant players. Unlike the Nintendo Wii which only supports hitting thin air, Remote Impact recognises and registers intense brute force. The physical intensity of the game contributes to general fitness, weight loss and stress relief at the same time it allows you to socialise and create new friendships over a distance in a fun way.

Motivation

Current widespread communication technologies can support generic messaging and business-oriented tasks, but they do not adequately facilitate the building of trust between distant persons. On the other hand, traditional contact sports like football, rugby, and martial arts are well known for their effectiveness in social bonding and teambuilding. Remote Impact aims to provide these benefits to participants who are in different places.

Interface

Remote Impact is an example of an exertion interface that allows for brute force interaction. A life-sized silhouette of the remote player is projected on the interface, which resembles a mattress standing against a wall. This silhouette is captured from behind, allowing for a close-proximity interaction without camera obstruction or distortion issues. A novel multi-touch detection system measures the location and intensity of multiple simultaneous impacts. Players can talk to each other through a voice connection between the locations.

Game Play

Players can punch, kick, or throw their entire bodies against their projected opponent, and the system recognises when there has been a hit or a miss. Players can dodge hits by ducking or moving out of the way, just as in real sports. More points are scored by hitting one's opponent harder. At the end of a specific time interval, the player with the most points wins.

Uses

  • Remote Impact could allow friends and family members who live apart to engage in a full-body exertion exercise experience together in a playful environment without anybody getting hurt.

  • Schools could install Remote Impact to allow students to participate in sports and exercise together with students in other schools, possibly very far away.

  • Teambuilding coaches could use Remote Impact to increase the effectiveness of teams that work across continents.

  • Event companies or networking organisations could use the system to break the ice between remote participants and build a sense of togetherness.

  • Health club companies with multiple locations could offer dedicated installations to allow members to work out with their distributed friends in connected gyms.

Commercialisation

We are now commercialising this concept. We can build custom installations to suit individual requirements. Contact us for more information on hiring or purchase opportunities or if you are interested in supporting the development of products like this.

Awards

Remote Impact was among 11 new titles shortlisted for the European Innovative Games Award 2008. Other titles shortlisted included Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 and Nintendo's Wii Fit. A total of 77 games were nominated for the award from throughout the European Union.

Publications

Florian Mueller, Stefan Agamanolis, Martin Gibbs, and Frank Vetere, Remote Impact - Shadowboxing over a Distance (video), CHI 2009 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Florence, Italy, 5 - 10 April 2008, ACM Digital Library. (PDF)

Florian Mueller, Stefan Agamanolis, Frank Vetere, and Martin Gibbs, Remote Impact - Shadowboxing over a Distance (poster), SIGGRAPH 2008 International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, Los Angeles, 11 - 15 August 2008, ACM Digital Library. (PDF)

Florian Mueller and Stefan Agamanolis, Remote Impact: Shadowboxing over a distance to support Social Presence, Keho: the place for Presence research, issue 3, Spring 2008, pp. 19 - 21. (PDF)

Florian Mueller, Stefan Agamanolis, Martin Gibbs, and Frank Vetere, Remote Impact - Shadowboxing over a Distance, CHI 2008 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Florence, Italy, 5 - 10 April 2008, ACM Digital Library. (PDF)

Florian Mueller, Stefan Agamanolis, Frank Vetere, and Martin Gibbs, Brute Force as Input for Networked Gaming, Proceedings of OzCHI 2007 Australasian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 28 - 30 November 2007, ACM Digital Library. (PDF)

Links

  • High resolution project images

    Video

    BBC reporter Steven McKenzie captured a great Remote Impact fight on video, which is linked from his article: Inside Distance Lab

    Click below to watch an older video about Remote Impact:

    Photos from Remote Impact at the 2009 NEXT event, also known as the "Nordic Exceptional Trendshop", held in Aarhus, Denmark:

    Other photos:

  •