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Supporting Aim Assistance Algorithms through a Rapidly Trainable, Personalized Model of Players’ Spatial and Temporal Aiming Ability

Published: 19 April 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Multiplayer digital games can use aim assistance to help people with different levels of aiming ability to play together.
To dynamically provide each player with the right amount of assistance, an aim assistance algorithm needs a model of the player’s ability that can be measured and updated during gameplay. The model must be based on difficulty parameters such as target speed, size, and duration, that can be adjusted in-game to change aiming difficulty, and must account for player’s spatial and temporal aiming abilities.
To satisfy these requirements, we present the novel dynamic spatiotemporal model of a player’s aiming ability, based on difficulty parameters that can be manipulated in a game. In a crowdsourced experiment with 72 participants, the model was found to accurately predict how close to a target a player can aim and to converge rapidly with a small set of observations of aiming tasks.

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Cited By

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  • (2025)3D Ternary-Gaussian model: Modeling pointing uncertainty of 3D moving target selection in virtual realityInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2025.103454198(103454)Online publication date: Apr-2025
  • (2024)User Performance in Consecutive Temporal Pointing: An Exploratory StudyProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642904(1-15)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
  • (2023)Gaze Assistance for Older Adults during Throwing in Virtual Reality and its Effects on Performance and MotivationProceedings of the 29th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology10.1145/3611659.3615706(1-11)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2023

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  1. Supporting Aim Assistance Algorithms through a Rapidly Trainable, Personalized Model of Players’ Spatial and Temporal Aiming Ability

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 2023
    14911 pages
    ISBN:9781450394215
    DOI:10.1145/3544548
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    Published: 19 April 2023

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    Author Tags

    1. aim assistance
    2. dynamic difficulty adjustment
    3. dynamic player balancing
    4. game balancing
    5. personalization

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    View all
    • (2025)3D Ternary-Gaussian model: Modeling pointing uncertainty of 3D moving target selection in virtual realityInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2025.103454198(103454)Online publication date: Apr-2025
    • (2024)User Performance in Consecutive Temporal Pointing: An Exploratory StudyProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642904(1-15)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
    • (2023)Gaze Assistance for Older Adults during Throwing in Virtual Reality and its Effects on Performance and MotivationProceedings of the 29th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology10.1145/3611659.3615706(1-11)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2023

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