Controller That Can Read Players’ Emotions

[Yugioh21]

For a while now, the goal in the video gaming community has been to increase and improve interactive gaming. Not just for the players, but for the advancement in technology. We have only gotten so far with the next-gen consoles. However, we can always make something better; that includes finding ways for the player to have more interactivity with their consoles. Finally, there seems to be a breakthrough in the community.

Stanford University has taken the concept of interactive gaming to whole new level with their new design. The engineers at the university have designed a controller that can measure a player’s emotions as they play a video game. These handheld controllers can sense when a player is bored with the video game. That way, the video game can respond accordingly.

Cory McCall, the leader on the controller project had this to say,

“You can see the expression of a person’s autonomic nervous system in their heart rate and skin temperature and respiration rate, and by measuring those outputs, we can understand what’s happening in the brain almost instantaneously.”

McCall used a sensors from a 3D plastic module. The sensors were then place at the back panel of the controller. Then small metal pads were place on the controller’s surface, where the player’s hands are likely to touch the most. These pads measure the player’s heart rate, blood flow, it even measures both the rate of breath and how deeply the user is breathing. Another light-operated sensor was placed to give a second heart rate measurement, and accelerometers measure how frantically the person is shaking the controller.

Then a custom-built software gauges the intensity of the game. For example, if the player is playing a shooter game and they begin to get bored. The game will respond by increasing the enemy fire. That way, the player will be more involved with the video game and be less inclined to turn off the game and do something else.

The controller can be used by every gamer of all ages. The controller can also be helpful with children. Here is what McCall said about it,

“If parents are concerned that their children are getting too wrapped up in the game, we can tone it down or remind them that it’s time for a healthy break.”

This new development in the gaming community will certainly be well received. This may what every gamer has be hoping for!

What are your thoughts on the controller?

http://www.obstructedviews.net/controller-that-can-read-players-emotions/