Information about video game environments is communicated to players through a virtual camera. Camera control in most games is fixed by designers and is mostly constrained to specific camera profiles like the First-Person profile where camera is under direct user control. It is difficult to design camera control in complex, dynamic 3D environments for different types of users in a way that doesn't interfere with gameplay experience. In this talk, I will describe two projects that attempt to address some of the challenges in designing camera system for games. I will first describe a real-time camera control system that uses potential fields for controlling camera position and view location. This representation is accessible to game designers and performs well in complex dynamic environments. In the second part of the talk, I will describe user experiments conducted to study the interplay between camera profiles, game information, physiological states, and affective preferences of players. Data collected from these experiments is being used to learn affective player models and to drive an intelligent camera system that can switch camera profiles to individually modulate challenge for players.

Arnav Jhala is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the Jack Baskin School of Engineering at University of California, Santa Cruz. His research interests lie at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Media, particularly in the areas of Computer Games, Cinematic Communication, and Narrative Discourse. Dr. Jhala has previously held research positions at the IT University of Copenhagen, Institute for Creative Technologies at University of Southern California where he was part of the Leaders project developed in association with Paramount Pictures, Virtual Heroes, Inc., a leading serious games developer and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Dr. Jhala holds a Ph.D.(2009) and M.S.(2004) in Computer Science from North Carolina State University, and a B.Eng. in Computer Engineering from Gujarat University in India.