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."

Comments

So calm, until...

[IndustrialComplex]

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.

Really ticked off

[anton544]

What does the dragon do when I throw my controller up the side of my monitor? Die a horrible death?

maybe a bad idea

[Jafafa Hots]

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...
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. :D

Re:Old... very, very old

[@madeus]

I know this story has been posted a few times, coming up every 2-3 years since at least the 80's (that I know of), and it does the rounds in the TV and newspapers too.

It's been a "fish that swims and grows as you relax" and "an animal that evolves (from a fish to a lizard to a monkey) as you relax" this time apparently it's an insect. It's usually funded by University research grant (a waste of money IMO, especially when it's public funds) and with pumped up headlines like "games of the future to be controlled by your mind".

As you say, really simple stuff, I'm really sick of reading about this same "advancement"/"new technology" over and over. I'll probably *still* be reading "news" about it when I'm an old man.

This is similar to an idea I once had

[hey!]

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.