A Practical System for Instant 3D Games Using Quizzes

This paper presents a practical system which allows instructors to easily introduce 3D games utilizing smartphones in a classroom. The system consists of a PC server, a big screen and smartphone clients. The server provides 3D models, so no 3D authoring is needed when using this system. For an instructor, preparing slides of quiz-questions with the correct answers is all that is required when designing 3D games. According to a quiz specified by an instructor, this system constructs a corresponding 3D game scene. The answers students provide on their smartphones will be used to play this game. Everyone in the classroom can see this 3D game in real time on a big screen. The game illustrates how every student has reacted to a quiz. This system also introduces specialized queues for mobile interactions; a queue for commands from an instructor and a queue for data from students. The command queue has higher priority than the data queue; so that an instructor can control this system by sending commands with clicks on a smartphone. Previous studies have mostly provided specially designed teaching materials to instructors, often treating them as passive consultants. However, by using slides, already familiar to instructors, this system enables instructors to combine their own teaching materials with 3D games in the classroom. Moreover, 3D games are expected to further motivate students to actively participate in classroom activities. This system is evaluated in this paper.