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Device Reduces Stress While Gaming
Bayscribe writes "Vyro Games, a Dublin Ireland company, unveils a device today that forces you to relax while playing games. It is called a PiP, or "Personal Input Pod," and it measures things like the moisture in your hand to assess whether you're stressed. If you're showing signs of stress, your performance in a game deteriorates. If you relax, you do much better. The PiP communicates wirelessly with software on devices such as mobile phones, PCs or games consoles... If you relax, the dragon spreads its wings and flies. If not, it stumbles all over the place."
Yep! It's on now folks! Our competators are sitting in their bean-bag chairs and are completely relaxed. It's really exciting, two have even fallen asleep!
Wait, this is the most boring competition ever. I'm breaking for lunch.
like the moisture in your hand to assess whether you're stressed.
In other words, whenever your palm gets sweaty, you're stressed. And I'm supposed tu buy an expensive device to tell me that? O.o
the device may actually increase stress as the player becomes extremely pissed off at his losses.
I'll never be relaxed because my dragon ain't going nowhere no matter how relaxed I get.
1) Wire up the Microsoft headset with firmware which detects excessive swearing, racial slurs, and other anti-social behavior... ... and causes you to de-buff your damage and resistance if you're the one doing it, to the point where a butterfly flapping its wings in China has already killed you in Halo 3.
2)
3) ????
4) Profit. And you just saved the sanity of the rest of the world, too.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Dad: Son, get off the computer, you've been playing for hours!
Child: But daaaa-aad, I'm training to be a Zen Master!
Dad: What?!
Child: Look, I can kill 35 dragons without breaking a sweat or my heart beat rising! I'm totally in control.
Dad: Uhh, what?
Child: It looks like a video game, but it's really a meditation machine (*snickers under breath*)
Dad: Meditation? Zen? Killing dragons... that's it, you're going to sunday school!
The dragon's cruising along.... crap he is getting lower. Oh NO DAMN IT! It's falling. I've got to get him back up. Come on, FLY. FLY YOU GOD DAMNED DRAGON. Ahhh crap! ...
Now, I've got to go load up an FPS to releave the stress I generated keeping that damned thing flying.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
What does the dragon do when I throw my controller up the side of my monitor? Die a horrible death?
A job might be a better place to use this than video games. I know I'm a lot more stressed at work than when I'm playing DS. Clippy could start throwing up on your screen if you're working too hard.
----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
The only "new" about this is the idea of using it while playing computer games (re-inventive). The same devices were very popular in the end of the 60s and early 70s, and you found repeated schematics for them in every electronics magazine out there. The most common ones back then measured alpha and/or beta waves (if I recall correctly) from brain activity and controlled oscillators with this, triggering people to relax to reduce the sound, or simply controlling the sound by controlled relaxation.
... and on how you play it. Think, first and foremost, about how you play a FPS. Those who favor snipers need a steady aim and patience - the stress-free style. However, those who favor blitzkrieg moves (or leapfrog-style run-and-gun in a small team) need to be quick and erratic - the hyped-up style. Besides which, consider the time of play: for those who end up playing long into the night, a rush is needed to keep on top of things.
It's no surprise, then, that stimulants are so common. I'm actually pretty surprised that they aren't selling energy drinks with added Diazepam to counteract the jitters....
Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
These people should be making lie detectors! Really, I don't see how this could work well universally. Personally, my palms don't sweat much, but I know people whose do very easily. Pretty much if they hold onto something, regardless if they are stressed or not, their hand will become very sweaty. These biometrics vary so much from person to person I don't see how this could work very well. The system would also have to take environmental factors into consideration, like temperature and humidity.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
So basically if you're stressed, you do horrible in the game...which makes you more stressed, which makes you do worse in the game...
One would think that stressed people would need to have an easier time in order to unwind, not be forced to unwind to have an easier time. I know that when I play I want the game to be easy when I'm stressed (I love just blowing through a couple of levels really easily, makes me feel 'in control' which helps de-stress me) and hard when I'm not, not the other way around.
There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
Hmmm, this sounds interesting. Let's give it a try!
Hey! This is great! I feel SO relaxed. Oops. Oh-oh. Oh Noes!!! My dragon she be stumbling!!! I gots to RELAX! RIGHT NOW !!!!!! ARGHHHH!!!!!!!
Doesn't seem to help much. :/
If I got stressed while gaming, instead of this flying dragon thing, I'd rather have a beer holder (girlfriends head) while getting a bj (from said girlfriend). Chauvenistic yes, funny? Also yes! :D
If your hands are sweaty it means you're stressed? Wow how about it means you've been holding a controller for a while, or it's really warm where you're at, or you generally sweat easy (not a bad thing afaik) and your palms get sweaty when you're holding something? (this will probably be 'redundant' because I'm sure a bunch of folks have typed this same thing faster than me ^_^)
This is almost like saying if you have an elevated heart rate it means you're frightened.
The folks that made this device are playing their clients/customers for chumps.
I like basketball!!1!
Old news. The Church of Signhereology has had something like this for years. It's used in this game of theirs where you pay heaps of money for unlockable content and the chance to 'level up'. What's more, the storyline was written by an actual science-fiction writer. Beat that, Bioshock!
It seems to me this has been done before as Journey to Wild Divine. I suppose that wasn't as portable, though.
The next model will monitor your chat for stress.
"You cheater! Noobs! You homos! He's glitching! You"
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Completely useless. How will this help anyone game?
Unless you're into those kind of Barbie-Pony games... But even then I'm not so sure.
This is the first interesting piece of technology I've seen come from my country, yet still it's not even worth developing.
They could make it so that the dragon feels your stress and makes it harder to pilot the dragon until you become less stressful.
If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
They say violent video games cause violent behavior. I'm skeptical, I played Manhunt to the end and I haven't killed any real people yet... :D
But maybe the key difference is that I DID get nervous in certain tense scenes. Are we really sure we want to train people to be able to kill a bunch of people, decapitate enemies, stalk people etc. without getting an elevated heart rate? Myabe this would be a great serial killer training device.
This space available.
Does this mean we can expect to see Fatal1ty branded anti-perspirant on the market soon?
At least for myself, when I'm stressed I perform worse in games anyways. I find that I play at my best when I'm confident and having a good day.
A dragon flight control scheme worse than Lair
More music, fewer hits
I misread "dragon" as "dragonflies" (which for some reason I've been thinking about a lot lately).
...you die. Yeah, that usually works.
for cars.
You'd have a device which monitored physiological measures of stress and aggression in the driver, as well as behavioral measures such as weaving, blowing the horn, etc.. A heads up display would score the driver's net aggression score: green, yellow or red
After half a minute or so in the red zone, the sustained speed available to the driver would begin to drop. He could still accelerate for emergency maneuvering, but only for a few seconds, after which power to the engine would be reduced. After such a maneuver, his speed limit would drop even more unless he moved his physiological stress markers towards baseline, which would always be rewarded by an upward increment of speed. At the worst case, a speed limit would be enforced which would not be unsafe in the right lane of a highway, say 40mph or so. After a minute at this bottom level, a visual signal would alert others to the presence of a dangerous driver, and the driver would be legally required to find a place to stop and cool off.
Eventually, operant conditioning would result in drivers automatically modulating their stress levels when behind the wheel. People would learn to keep the needle on the green, zooming to their destinations with unlimited speed, arriving relaxed and refreshed. Even with traffic, they'd be able to monitor their stress levels and would be trained to limit it.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Sort of like an anal probe?
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
If my raid isn't sweating profously / cringing at what I last called them or high enough not to notice then they aint working hard enough!
They fitted George Orwell's coffin with rollers so he could turn over more easily years ago.
sigs are hazardous to your health
Maybe this is dumb, but I thought the purpose of high energy shoot-em-up games was to induce stress. Am I wrong to equate stress with challenge?
As an avid MMO player, having a controler that would reduce my performance while playing would releive alot of my stress... As I smash it apart from the shear frustration of dealing with lag, latency and a bad controler.
Seriously who thinks of these things?
Another thing to worry about while playing games. I'm already worried to death that Shamblers are going to get me, now I have to worry that the Shamblers can tell I'm worried. You've just given video games the ability to smell fear.
-tyfighter
I was actually just thinking about this today, as graduate school has caused all sorts of stress in my life.
Some people exercise to reduce stress, some people drink, some people have sex, and the list goes on. Some people play video games to relieve stress, and you can't do that if you're forced to relax. The whole idea of relieving stress is to take out anger and frustration in ways that won't harm anyone. So this whole idea is crap.
As aside because I know someone will comment - certainly some ways are better than others - getting drunk because you hate your job and then getting in a car certainly causes risks to others, and I wouldn't advocate that. However, if you can take a bus home (like in many universities) or a cab (like in many cities) it's not inherently dangerous to others.
I really hope the device helps you and just connects when you have connection problems in multiplayer games, or when the hardcore tech advises you to restart your DSL modem for the 42nd time, even though ALL GAMES work, but one ....
....
... or make my character run into a corner, cry ans shiver .... or dunno ....
...
Games do not stress me. Work does. Dealing with support does....... anyhow the idea could not work in FPS too well..... you need tension there
unless they make me fall in an epileptic shock (in the game) when my hand is sweating
kind of a stupid idea IMO
Remember those rectangular boxes that emit light?
It is called a PiP, or "Personal Input Pod"
I can smell the coming of the PIPBOY. I could use one, personaly, to keep track of my quests, maps, and archives of past events.
I have one of these. It's called a bong.
Why not to use simpler solution and stop playing stressful games?
I know the games on at least one airline (sorry can't remember but I think Continental, otherwise NW or UA) has games in the lcd in front of you that are tricked.. they seem to make it easy for you to win on purpose to reduce your stress. Of course they are therefore not too interesting.
I wish Slashdot would market a device that told people that they were about to post a reply without thinking and/or RTFA.:
For all of those that stated 'thats dumb, i know when my palms sweat';the device measures moisture AND other things.
"and it measures things like the moisture in your hand to assess whether you're stressed."
AC
Because I am most relaxed when playing a racing game head-to-head against someone else... Wouldn't a more appropriate theme have been to control a floating Buddha around a screen, collecting jade statues or some such?
Ain't it the other way 'round, rather? I mean, think about it: When you play a game for the n-th time and build up again to the point where you failed last time (and lost your save games in the meantime), do you really sweat for those first few levels? Then think back, did you when you played it the first time and didn't have the moves down to the point where you don't even think about pressing the 'right' buttons anymore?
I had a similar revelation lately, when I tried a new class in an MMORPG. I've been playing healers for about 10 years now, and no matter what MMORPG, no matter how tough the mob, no sweat. Piece of cake. It's what I've been doing for so long that many times over I did boss fights while watching TV on the side. Two days ago I was sitting with my warrior in something I'd usually brush aside as a trivial fight and was sweating like in a marathon race.
In a nutshell: You sweat when you suck.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
...I remember seeing a Tetris game where you clip something to your ear to take your pulse, and the game would slow down when you got too stressed. Same idea, opposite goal; bailing the player out instead of forcing them to stay calm.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
This devices causes what's known as a positive feedback loop: you're going poorly in your game, so you get stressed. The device detects this and degrades performance, which makes you even more stressed. Repeat until your frustration approaches infinity and your game performance reaches negative infinity.
I play videogames to relax in the first place. It's all about release. This sounds very contradictory to the point of the entire hobby. Maybe it could be used to make sure grandpa doesn't burst an artery while in some game where hes trying to cap a flag and being fragged and insulted every two seconds.
Now if they did it the opposite way - making it easier when you're stressed, and harder when you're relaxed, it would actually make for a stess-busting fun game that's conducive to flow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology).
As it is, it just lurks in wait to stress you out a bit, then spiral into unplayability - unless of course you don't care about the game whatsoever, in which case you shouldn't be playing.
So what happens if the device detects so much stress that it determines the only way to make you relax is to kill you? "RUN, ATREYU! RUN!!"
Though this does remind me of the computers in a sci-fi book I was reading, the Species Imperative series by Julie Czerneda. Her computers monitor you for fatigue (breathing, droopy eyes, etc). Then they start popping up warnings saying "Hey, you're getting tired. Stop working in 15 minutes". The warnings get progressively more intrusive. Eventually, the computer saves your work and shuts down until you get some rest. It's all customizable, of course-- but the idea is that the main character, who tends to be a workaholic, recognizes that her work goes to crap after a certain point of fatigue, but doesn't have the self control to stop.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
If they want to do something about frustration, get rid of that fucking 20-second respawn timer in TF2.
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell.
I bought a device that basically warns you when your head is too close to the monitor. No more leaning forwards over the keyboard.
It uses some kind of range finder to work and sits on top of the monitor. Brilliant for posture.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
When i play competitive CS I notice that i get a surge of adrenaline.. it seems to make my reactions quicker and my brain race.. i usually have to step away for 30 minutes to calm down enough to sleep (when playing nights).. i like the rush and it helps me.. why would i purposely buy something to counter act this effect?
Newsflash.. intense gameplay might make you edgy? Film at 11?
I can't imagine this game being useful for anything except children's games and young children. For me, playing Quake Wars, CSS, Far Cry, etc. I'm going to get pissed, edgy, aggravated, what have you. A device that makes my character perform worse than I probably already am as the controller of the character is just going to make me that much angrier, not calm me down.
Tell you what Vyro Games, you wanna calm me down when I start to stress? Hook up electrodes to the pleasure centers in my brain and stimulate those when I'm pushing a stroke because my team consists of the majority cast of Keystone Kops and we're getting raped so bad that a prison gang bang would seem like vanilla missionary style sex. *That* would calm me down just fine.
Alot of the comments about moisture seem not to talk to what was said in the article.
"The product works by first establishing a baseline set of characteristics for the user. It finds things like the normal level of moisture in your hand, and then works by detecting the slightest bit of variance from that baseline level. It doesn't rely on your pulse."
I agree that enviromental factors such as humidity would make this difficult. I guess I am in the minority in wanting a way to mitigate stress. This does not sound like such a terrible idea. I would like to see something more advanced but interesting.
fesaj
What? No Pip-Boy jokes? You people are letting me down...
What about those of us who do not exhibit sweaty palms when stressed? I am taking a beta-blocker called propranolol for treatment of a movement disorder. It works by blocking the effects of adrenaline on my body; as a side effect, it masks the physical symptoms of stress. My heart rate does not elevate, my palms do not sweat, and my breathing does not change. I don't even feel stressed most of the time, even though subconsciously I know when I am in over my head. It's unlikely this system will ever know that I'm actually stressed just based on the amount of sweat on my palm. Of course, having a movement disorder that affects my dominant arm, a mouse is more of an annoyance than a necessity.
Shouldn't you be playing games to relieve stress, not create it? Shouldn't buying such a device and using it tell you something about how much time you're spending playing a game, and how much you're letting it get to you? Maybe what the thing should do is BSOD your computer and force you to do something else for fun that won't stress you out in the first place.
There. Happy now?
Isn't that missing the point? Why would I want to play a game and be "relaxed" in the way this device measures?
They call it a "fleshlight" or some such. I wouldn't know being married, but maybe she'd stop smacking the top of her head on the underside of the desk if I cut down pugging with those total noobs all the time.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
A couple of clarifications on some of the previous comments (and yep - I work for Vyro Games): With the PIP you can play a variety of games, and some of those games, like Relax & Race, intentionally put you in a stressful situation. Why would anyone want to do that? Well, because it's an accurate reflection of real life. When do we get stressed? When something puts us under pressure. By practising with a game like Relax & Race for the PIP, you can learn what you need to do to reduce your stress precisely when you need it most - i.e. when something is stressing you out. The PIP doesn't measure "sweatiness" or "moisture" per se. It measures the electrical conductance of the skin, due to variations in sweat gland activity, which is not the same thing. This phenomenon is called electrodermal activity (EDA). The PIP is held between the fingertips, since there is a high concentration of sweat pores there, which allows EDA to be easily measured. What's that got to do with stress? In a nutshell, when you get stressed, your body reacts physically as well as psychologically. For instance, your heart rate goes up, adrenalin is released and you sweat more. EDA is closely correlated with stress - that's why it's used in lie detectors. The measurement isn't affected by how sweaty your hands are normally, since it's based on changes in skin conductivity, rather than a baseline value.
"If you relax, the dragon spreads its wings and flies. If not, it stumbles all over the place."
If you relax, you get to play Panzer Dragoon, if not, you're forced to play Lair.