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Game Feedback Gets More Intense With Electrodes
ne_ol'schmoe writes "The simple feedback of a Dual Shock is passé - vomit comet simulators will soon be possible without leaving your chair, since those wacky tech-heads at NTT have come up with a way to change people's perception of balance, using electrodes that fit behind your ear. They expect to integrate it with racing and flight games to have users lean into turns, and also to simulate gravity changes for a more realistic experience. Sounds cool, but now games will have to come with barf bags, I guess."
Some kid's going to do a barrel roll in Flight Simulator 2006 and become so unbalanced he'll fall off his chair and crack his head open. I don't think it's a good idea to mess with a sense that can seriously affect your ability to stay standing and move around, especially when it's just for the sake of a game.
For those of us who remember "motion sickness" in the original Doom - I guess it's just a matter of time before people get accustomed to the feelings.
I remember I needed to take hours of breaks after just half-an-hour of Doom the first couple of weeks, because of motion sickness. Far worse than "car sickness" which I used to have when I was a kid.
I grew up from "car sickness". I grew up from "motion sickness" in games. I guess it'll just take some weeks/months of playing with these electrode-things before one get used to it - and thus simply doesn't need the barf-bag.
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
In reality, if somebody's shot down in an airplane, it's okay for them to have a screaming headache and red out because they're about to freaking die. In a video game, it's nice to just watch the pretty pixels pass by before you crater.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Motion sickness is caused by the lack of sync between what the eyes percieve and what the inner ear reports. By stimulating the sense of motion in sync with the visuals of a game there will in theory be less chance of motion sickness than the current state of the art: visuals are not synced to motion.
Of course inacurate or inproperly synced motion cues will cause obvious problems.
Every First-person-shooter I've played since 1996 seems to produce "sim-sickness" quite effectively without horking the inner-ear. I've found the newest "console" FPS games are even more effective at it. There's been several (Time-Splitters3,Warhammer40k,Quake3,etc...) that become so intolerable so fast that I can't even get through a level without wanting to just lay down and die. Unless this piece of kit can reduce or eliminate sim-sickness (where your inner ear wants a piece of the action your eyes/motor cortext are having fun with) by giving us another input it's not going to catch on.
Of course, it would be a blast for modders to create a program which would specifically be used to "torture", like a centerfuge. Keep that puppy around for when someone has been drinking too much, wrap them up in a blanket and clear the area. This could also see use in interrogation. It's one thing to wear people down from the outside (physical exertion, exposure, witholding food/water) but hook them up to something like this and you have a low-tech device that produces severe discomfort and disorientation. We'll know the real-deal when 3rd world countries start buying them by the pallet.
I could go on, but this is about as clean as it gets, because...
Every new form of media has it's own Requirimento
The sensation of balance has absolutly nothing to do with g-forces. They often feel related because it is usually movement that cause g-forces to be experienced other then the one pulling us down. But nothing done with a piece of wire by your ear or even shoved into your brain could make you experience g-forces. All it could do is make you think you are upside down. Or at worst feel a little bit sick if it chances to often or you are susceptible to car sickness.
Red out is cause by the blood being forced into the head usually by pulling negative g's. Such as when you point the nose of an aircraft violently down or go over a hill in a rollercoaster. Fighter pilots never do this as a Red out is very dangerous. Black out is the reverse and less harmfull provided you regain consciousness before the plane reaches the ground.
Sorry about the trollish tone I am catching up on /. stories and I have reached my stupidity tresshold.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Yes of course you could just pull the thing off but that isn't funny oh this wasn't either? Bleh.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Mark my words, in a few years it will be 'Virtual Girl 4, now with Electrodes!' Use your imagination on where those electrodes connect, boys and girls...
I may live in the minority on this issue, but I sort of like that concrete separation of games and reality. I don't have any interest in the feelings or lives of my various avatars; I just want to play the game. That doesn't mean though that I don't find this interesting on a sort of passive level. I don't think I am ready to have vomiting induced when I get poisoned in game though. (Actually that sounds sort of cool)
This is going to be a big deal (assuming they can get consumers to bite on it, seems like one of those things that various watchdog groups are going to get uppity about) but I suspect that it will be embraced the same way that rumble technology has been; it will eventually get included in everything, even those things in which it does not fit or seem appropriate and eventually many gamers are just going to leave it turned off.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
HAHAHA! Imagine what a virus writer could use these for:
"I was playing Flight Simulator with those new balance thingies... and suddenly, I started to rock forward and backwards, very very fast, and I barfed all over my keyboard, and then I fell off the chair and broke my left arm. Dammn thingies.
Um, it's generally called "(Quake-)motion sickness" actually...
;)
I never heard about it happend in Doom and it really became wide-spread only with Quake.
I only get it by WATCHING long times somebody play FPSs, I never got it (yet) when I played them...
I'm not a medic, but I guess it's linked to the fact that you SEE something that your brain perceives as "motion" yet you don't get the sensation of inertia, and that the action on the screed is a few msecs delayed from the expected game's output your kbd/mouse output... which is of course worse (I guess) if you don't expect any response at all (also, never heard of drivers getting car-sick... only passengers).
I heard though (on Discovery ch. a few days ago) reports about "lag" in older real, big, expensive flight-sims causing the same effect (sickness/quesiness/etc). The "cure" was to reduce the lag of visual/gravific feedback under 50 msec.
So I guess they'll encounter a symillar problem here soon... but much worse (muscles inertia bound to be above 100msec).
So I'm quite eager so see how this turns out AFTER some real-life games tests
By reading this signature you agree to not disagree with the post you just read.
I spent yesterday in the hospital with my mom. They thought she had a small stroke because her balance was off and she kept falling to the right. Turns out it was a condition called labyrinthitis.
Messing with your inner ear through electrical pulse could certainley have some long term effects, like swelling or neuron damage.
An artificial vertigo sensation while playing a game isn't a fair trade off for possibly days of irregular balance.
WURD!!
"Put it in the streets" ???
It's an electrode sticking behind your ear, dammit!
It needs physical contact, you need the consent of the person to have him wear it...
How could you control a crowd with such a thing?
"Please, everybody, now stick this device to your ear so we can make you dizzy" ???
By reading this signature you agree to not disagree with the post you just read.
I wonder if this technology could have other, more-useful medical implications for people with types of Vestibular Disorders (inner-ear/balance problems). Attach the electrodes to a computer-controlled gyro in a small box (say something you wear around your waist) and say goodbye to self-balance issues.
All the same, I'm looking forward to seeing what impact this will have on future games.