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Next-gen Game Controllers Tug At Thumb Tips
An anonymous reader writes "Engineers at the University of Utah have designed a new kind of video game controller that not only vibrates like existing devices, but pulls and stretches the thumb tips in different directions to simulate various types of movement. 'We have developed feedback modes that enhance immersiveness and realism for gaming scenarios such as collision, recoil from a gun, the feeling of being pushed by ocean waves or crawling prone in a first-person shooter game,' said the lead researcher on the project, adding he hoped the technology would be adopted in the next generation of gaming consoles."
It pulls too hard and break your thumb? ouch!
just wonder why there are so many anonymous cowards in this world....
"...not only vibrates like existing devices, but pulls and stretches the thumb tips in different directions to simulate..."
what kind of games are these guys playing?
I thought that was the future when they were touting it as the latest and greatest.
There's still a long way till they manage to make a game controller that is actually better than the keyboard & mouse combo..
I hereby make a motion that everyone immediately and permanently stop work on all controller innovations that do not involve jacking our brains directly into the computer. Who's with me?
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
...I want to know what type of computer simulations this type of controller technology will lead to.
KBM fanboys claim that they can pull off combos in the Street Fighter series with a keyboard, using WASD for movement, UIO for punches, and JKL for kicks, more reliably than on a joystick. It becomes like typing: SDI = fireball; DSDI = dragon punch. The problem comes when player 2 joins because most PC games don't support the Raw Input API, which is the only way to read keypresses on multiple keyboards as distinct from each other. Or does SFIV for PC support it?
I suffer rare instances where my thumb joint becomes inflamed and sensitive, bout lasting for up to two weeks (you really begin to understand how much you rely upon your thumb at times like this) usually set off by some minor little stress, which I haven't quite indentified. Odd I can lift heavy weights, do all manner of physical labor (shoveling, sawing, hammering, pushing, pulling, lifting, twisting) with no problem, than some little movement sets if off, like picking up a coffee mug.
Whatever happened to eye-motion contollers? That would probably work well.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
This would be new to the console mass market I suppose, but not new as a controller. A small company called Novint has been selling haptic feedback controllers for years now on the PC.
There's also a company called TNGames that sells a haptic vest designed to simulate bullet hits & explosions.
This sig is exactly seventy characters long and a real waste of space!
Seems to me like this is just a grippy little nib- kinda like the IBM trackpoint devices- with a motor attached to it, similar to how "force feedback" joysticks used to do it back in the day.
Not sure if anyone here ever used one of those joysticks, but they were a sight and sensation to use. The Microsoft Sidewinder units were probably the best out there- completely oversized to hell, weighed about 15lb and plugged straight into the mains (no power adapter, just a removable appliance cord- the PSU was built-in). They even had a nifty optical sensor built in so the joystick wouldn't flap around like a dying fish if you let go of it. I think they cost around $249, they weren't cheap but boy were they worth it.
Games like Descent 3 and Mechwarrior and Battlefield 1942 (I think) took advantage of the force feedback, and it was pretty wild. If you ran into a wall, the joystick steppers would kick in at full strength and it felt like you just smashed into a wall. Mechwarrior had all sorts of weapon recoil, and they were all different- so you could tell what you were firing by the force feedback pattern shooting up your arm. I recall that there were a few flight sims that used it too (can't remember the names though) and they'd push the joystick steppers in relation to the number of Gs you were pulling.
It was all rather fantastic and added a sensory depth to otherwise flat games. Playing any of them with a proper FF joystick definitely made the game seem more "real" to a certain extent.
So it's kinda nice to see this technology has survived, even if it's a prototype and in a miniature format designed for gamepads rather then full-hand joysticks.
-AC
...two thumbs down, except that it moved my thumbs into a thumbs up!
Go on, pull the other one. .:)
. .
Next generation force feedback for handheld controllers.
Maybe the generation after they'll put some sort of gyroscopic motivator inside (gyroscope inside the controller, by using servos to move the gyroscope in one direction, the controller will pull in the other direction).
*edit* Hah! I was right. http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/cue/GyroTab/
To appear in the proceedings of ACM CHI 2012, May 2012 --Looks like this is brand new!
Specifically, from the PDF at the bottom:
Differences in weight
Output torques from the device are generally perceived as
resistance, making a virtual object harder to move around.
We found that increasing the angular momentum of the
system could help to convey differences in the weight of a
virtual object (for example, a vehicle in a game), with high-
er angular momentums corresponding to heavier weights.
We envision applications in gaming or tilt-controlled user
interfaces. This could also be built into handheld measure-
ment equipment that requires restricting the rate at which
users can tilt the device.
Path guidance
The torques from the device can also be used to create the
feeling that the device is tugging the user’s hands along a
path. This perception is based on the fact that the output
vector is perpendicular to the input vector defined by the
user’s own torque. We envision this sensation being useful
in applications such as real-time remote navigation of a
robot or robotic arm that is intended to follow a certain tra-
jectory or avoid obstacles.
Simulated physical media
Varying GyroTab’s feedback can simulate motion of a vir-
tual object through different physical media. For example,
more feedback (and thus more resistance to motion) corre-
sponds to more viscous media. Similarly, the same mecha-
nism can be used to simulate friction between a moving on-
screen object and an on-screen surface. This could, for ex-
ample, make a virtual ball easier or harder to control as the
surface it rolls on changes. Beyond gaming, this could be
extended to any tilt-controlled interface to allow the user to
detect UI boundaries, for example.
Momentum
Finally, the device can be used to covey the momentum of a
moving object. As described above, the feedback could be
used to make it difficult to turn a car in a video game, just
as the forward momentum of a physical car makes it physi-
cally resistant to quick turns. This is perhaps the most intui-
tive of these proposed effects, because the feedback itself
originates from the momentum of physical masses.
Wheel and pedals are best for driving
Are you talking about realistic driving (e.g. Gran Turismo) or cartoon driving (e.g. Mario Kart)?
Keyboards and mouse are best for [...] RPG
In a cooperative action RPG like Secret of Mana, what would players 2 and 3 use?
[KBM is best for] side scrolling run and gun (such as Abuse or GunGirl)
True, it'd allow more precise aiming than in Contra. But for those people whose Konami code includes Select, what would player two use?
i wish they'd make a force-feedback computer gaming mouse already...