Enhancing sports games with tangible interaction: a comparative study during the development of a curling game

Abstract This study was conducted during the development of a spatial augmented reality (SAR) curling game, with the aim of selecting an appropriate interaction method. Currently, pointer-based interaction, gesture interaction, controller interaction, and tangible interaction are the main interaction methods used in sports games. Sports games emphasize the realism of movement and the speed of response, which are greatly impacted by the naturalness, performance, and usability of the interaction method. However, their differences concerning the aforementioned metrics and impacts on the gaming experience remain unclear. Therefore, a comparative study was conducted to evaluate the interaction performance, usability, and gaming experience offered by these four methods. Specifically, an SAR prototype system supporting selection, alignment, and system control tasks was developed with a user study conducted involving 40 undergraduate or graduate students. The results showed that in terms of interaction performance, tangible interaction was the most efficient and with high accuracy, slightly lower than the most familiar mouse method. In terms of usability, tangible interaction scored the highest. In terms of gaming experience, tangible interaction received the highest overall evaluation. Consequently, tangible interaction was applied to the curling game, with the hope of extending its use to more sports games. Hopefully, this study can provide valuable insights and guidance for other sports games in the selection of interaction methods.