Computer Game Predicts Player Moves

willatnewscientist writes "A couple of Hungarian researchers have developed a computer game that knows when you're going to press the 'jump' button ... 2 seconds before you do it. The researchers use neural networks to analyse several type of biofeedback signal — heart rate, EEG and skin conductance — and discovered that skin conductance alone is enough to predict a jump up to 2 seconds beforehand. They say the technique could ultimately be used to make aircraft controls that respond more quickly to a pilot's actions. But it could also be used to create so-called 'frustration games' that respond to a player's actions before they occur."

Comments

Reminds me of that story Predictor

[Pojut]

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050704/pf/436150a_ pf.html

Big deal?

[Eudial]

Big deal? You can train chimpanzees to realize that I'm going to jump the hell out of the way when I see a RPG headed my way.

Re:frist pist

[A beautiful mind]

I've predicted this post five minutes before you've posted it!

Unfortunately....

[aicrules]

Unfortunately the research was found to be flawed when they discovered that 99% of the test subjects were playing Night elf characters in World of Warcraft. This was pinpointed just prior to a potentially embarassing follow-up news release of a study showing the connection between frequency of spacebar usage and use of the phrase "come on flip already dammit!"

Must be an easy game..

[Chris_Jefferson]

I play plenty of games where I'm positive I have no way of knowing if I'm going to jump 2 seconds before, unless I can somehow tell where enemies are going to move in advance.. which would be very interesting. I'd be interested to know how long in advance they can detect button presses on more 'twitch' games.

Re:Must be an easy game..

[dreddnott]

My thoughts exactly. Games of Unreal Tournament and the like are won by decisions made in 100 milliseconds. Waste 50 extra milliseconds not pulling the trigger and your brains get splattered all over by the guy sitting across from you (or the Godlike bot). If I start "flowing" enough my conscious mind doesn't even get in the way (hence the 'twitch' appellation), that's how I come out on top. Economy of thought. Doesn't work as well in CTF with team damage on...

Re:Must be an easy game..

[Wog]

I like to call that a Wide Prophet Margin.

Re:Guessing Game

[GrievousMistake]

"In two seconds, the pilot is going to panic and accidently push the stick sharply forward, as he reacts to my sudden preemtive forward tilt."

Matrix

[jadin]

Oracle: I'd ask you to sit down, but, you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the vase.
Neo: What vase?
Oracle: That vase.
Neo: I'm sorry--
Oracle: I said don't worry about it. I'll get one of my kids to fix it.
Neo: How did you know?
Oracle: Ohh, what's really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything? If you know that the game knows you're going to jump, will you still do it?

Re:Matrix

[UbuntuDupe]

From what I understand, it correlates the changes in physiological metrics of you, with the times you jump. So, if you intentionally prepare to jump, like you normally do, but then deliberately hold back at the last second, opposite from how you acted while it was being trained, you can fool it. You'll show the signs of jumping, but then "change your pattern" so its guess is wrong.

Oh, and it probably would have been more relevant to make a cutesy reference to Minority Report. ;-)

Bring on the Frustration Game

[Nymz]

I'm certain many of us could out-frustrate it's edge. Choose Game Difficulty:

• Chewtoy
• Normal
• Hard
• Frustration!!!

Re:Bring on the Frustration Game

[scribblej]

There was a game back in the day - Suspended, by Infocom. It remains one of the scariest games I have ever played.

Anyhow, it had difficulty options, and the hardest difficulty setting was "Impossible."

Turns out it /actually/ is impossible -- if you select it, then three moves into the game the sun goes supernova, destroying everything.

So... it just plays itself?

[Anonymous Coward]

Obligatory penny-arcade reference. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/09/07/

That's smart.

[CODiNE]

They say the technique could ultimately be used to make aircraft controls that respond more quickly to a pilot's actions.

*Pilot cruising around Washington DC on anti-Terrorist patrols*
(Thinking to himself)
"Oh wow, I'm like... right over the White House now, it would like totally suck if I accidentally shot a"
*Missle launches at White House*
"Oh crap!! Do NOT think about launching missles!!"
*Missles launch at various historical monuments*
"Craaaaaap!! My Sarge is gonna KILL M"
*Plane explodes*

Re:That's smart.

[revengebomber]

Uh oh. Er, uh, Allah made me do it.

Human consciousness

[Menoyoda]

This sounds like the experiments done by Benjamin Libet, in which he found that actions are initiated by the brain before one consciously decides to perform them.

Danger in the cockpit

[Nanidin]

Wouldn't this be dangerous in an airplane? 2 seconds is a pretty big window of time between when a pilot might decide to do something and when he actually does it. During those two seconds, a lot could happen - unexpected turbulence, new weather data, a gust of wind on the runway, etc. If the computer acts on the command two seconds before the pilot intends for it to happen, bad things could happen.

Re:Danger in the cockpit

[mlts]

Another issue is if the AI makes a wrong guess, assuming the pilot wants to "zig", when the pilot wants to "zig-zag" -- doing a multi-stage action. An example would be a driver swerving left and right abruptly to avoid a zombie on the highway.

I can perhaps see a car or plane's AI going into a "ready" state, perhaps doing a fast check of control systems in preparation for some action of the driver/pilot.

Meanwhile at a gaming tournament...

[jadin]

"Sir, you're not allowed to place sensors on your opponents."

Human reaction time is about 1/4 of a second

[Colin Smith]

It takes much longer than that to think. Bright young things are maybe 1/5 of a second.

If I start "flowing" enough my conscious mind doesn't even get in the way (hence the 'twitch' appellation), that's how I come out on top. Economy of thought. That's how the martial arts masters work. No thought involved. And it's why even if you know and understand the techniques intellectually, you'll still get your arse handed to you by a street thug if you haven't practised several times a week, for years.

Interestingly the flinch reaction is actually faster than the regular reaction time, about twice as fast, 0.15s but the response is hardwired into the brain, you can't do anything about the flinch itself. Many karate "blocks" are responses based on what to do after flinching.