Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Thermoelectrics Could Let You Feel the Heat In Games

Posted by timothy on from the better-than-bullet-wounds dept.

myshadows writes "Tech Review has an interesting article on how Tokyo Metropolitan University researchers have been able to give a sensory addition to gaming peripherals — namely, temperature. 'As the range of interactions with digital environments expands, it's logical to ask what's next: Smell-o-vision has been on the horizon for something like 50 years, but there's a dark horse stalking this race: thermoelectrics. Based on the Peltier effect, these solid-state devices are easy to incorporate into objects of reasonable size, i.e. video game controllers. In this configuration, just announced at the 2010 SIGGRAPH conference, a pair of thermoelectric surfaces on either side of a controller rapidly heat up or cool down in order to simulate appropriate conditions in a virtual environment.'"

10 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. The real use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Games? Bring on the thermoelectric Fleshlight!

    1. Re:The real use by hipp5 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Games? Bring on the thermoelectric Fleshlight!

      May I introduce you to the Real Touch. Most definitely NSFW.

  2. For an even greater sensation... by Just_Say_Duhhh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Try making the thermoelectrics demonstrate the thermal grill illusion and you can convince the holder that he's been burned. I touched one of these at the Museum of Science & Industry, and I still remember it decades later.

    --
    I need trepanation like I need a hole in the head.
  3. Re:Watch where you put that! by d474 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's not the size of your joystick that counts, it's how HOT it gets!

    Truth be told, I have not yet been able to verify my hypothesis on this matter with a willing test subject.

    --
    Authority questions you. Return the favor.
  4. What could possibly go wrong? by thomasdz · · Score: 3, Funny

    As I'm hit and fall into the pit of lava, the safety overrides fail and suddenly, yeah, my peripherals are trying their best to get me up to a thousand degrees C.
    THIS is why I continue to play Nethack.

    --
    Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
  5. You will be baked by Megahard · · Score: 5, Funny

    .. and then there will be cake.

    --
    I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
    1. Re:You will be baked by DarkKnightRadick · · Score: 3, Funny

      The cake is a lie.

      --
      "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
  6. Electric charge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wouldn't it be lovely if the controller could deal electric shocks? Or pretend-drown the player? "Because we can" isn't always sufficient justification.

  7. Raynaud's sufferers better turn it off by Foobar_ · · Score: 3, Informative

    Some people have the circulation in their fingers and toes close off when their skin gets cold, which results in ischemia followed by inflammation once the circulation returns. Repeated events cause skin damage, connective tissue atrophy, and eventually you might lose your fingers.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raynaud's_disease

  8. Well actually... by Grimbleton · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My system is AMD-based. I ALREADY feel the heat.