Virtual archery with tangible interaction

This paper presents the design of “Virtual Arrow”, a 3D simulator for traditional archery. Traditional archers aim without a target figure. Good shooting results require an excellent body-eye coordination that allows the user to perform identical movements during each shot. The fascination of this sport is mainly based on a positive user experience when drawing the bow, focusing the target, releasing the arrow and hitting the target. With our 3D simulator we want to provide a believable archery experience and support novel users in practicing the motion sequence of traditional archery in a virtual environment. To provide a realistic haptic feedback we used a real bow as interaction device and equipped it with a dedicated damping system. We extended this system by electronic sensors to detect drawing and releasing of the bow, aiming at a virtual target and moving in front of a large projection screen. A second goal is to entertain visitors at trade fairs and exhibitions by exploring short interactive scenes and solve simple game-based tasks. Therefore, a set of tangible interaction methods has been designed to allow for entertaining interaction. A preliminary evaluation of this work based on informal interviews with users during a large exhibition and a small presence pre-test indicate a positive feedback concerning usability, joy of use and user experience.