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Biofeedback Used To Make People Anxious
vrml (3027321) writes Biofeedback is well-known as a relaxation technique, but the HCI Lab of the University of Udine has tried to use it for the opposite purpose: making people anxious. The technique, described by a paper in the November 2014 issue of the Interacting with Computers journal, exploits heartbeat detection. While users navigated a 3D world, the computer detected and played their actual heartbeat (users were not told it was theirs) in the audio background of the virtual world. At a couple of times during the experience, the application artificially increased the frequency of the played heartbeat and then reverted it to the actual one after some seconds. The study described in the paper contrasts the technique with aversive stimuli frequently used in video games when the character gets hurt such as decreasing health bars or increasing the frequency of an heartbeat sound that is not related to the user's actual heartbeat. The biofeedback-based technique produced much larger (subjective as well as physiological) levels of user anxiety than those classic aversive stimuli.
So it doesn't anymore?
We didn't start the fire...
It was always burning, since the systemd's been turning. We didn't start PulseAudio.
To make a better gaming and advertising experience.
Can we cut this shit out already and focus on having fun FFS?
Running through a haunted house simulator and being scared to the point you shit yourself is about as retarded as kids eating lit firecrackers.
Heartbeat anxiety from more than 30 years ago. I can still remember the little scritching of the scorpions, the evil wizards ringing, and countless other evil minions. For a bit of nostalgia, there is a PC port! http://mspencer.net/daggorath/dodpcp.html
It is called leading. You start by mimicking a person, then you start changing subtly and he will naturally follow. Usually done with breathing though for NLP or hypnosis.
Oh a sarcasm detector, there's a real useful invention!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
dungeons of daggorath - And I can attest that it had an impact, and still is one of my fondest memories of early gaming.
Perhaps I'm missing the point, but hasn't a similar technique been used in horror movie soundtracks for decades to produce anxiety in viewers?
dungeons of daggorath - Great game for the time, heart beat was your 'life' if it got too fast it burst and you died. Had a blast with that game, and it definitely got your heart racing along with it.
Claiming that biofeedback is a "relaxation technique" or can be a technique to make people "anxious" is somewhat erroneous.
Biofeedback is a method of scientific measure. Utilizing biofeedback to assist with relaxation or to induce anxiety would be the result of applying the knowledge gathered by biofeedback to assist in achieving the desired outcome; not the result of biofeedback itself.
However, I would say that in this case the results are being achieved through feeding back the biofeedback.
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
Dungeons of Daggorath, great-granddaddy of first-person monster fighting games, used a heartbeat as your health indicator. If you got hurt, the "ba-dump-ba-dump-ba-dump" sped up, if it got too fast you died. It certainly got my own heart racing in sympathy.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
am I the only one with visions of CIA, FBI, local police or heaven help us TSA morons implementing this?
Universities, their students, and their profs aren't able to keep up to published work from 40 years ago.
North America... no, the world... is a disgrace.
Go play more video games and cry about keyloggers, you laggards.
Troll? Not Funny? Really? Who pissed in the mods' cheerios? Fess up!
Makes me wonder if having all these heart rate monitors, and other sensors being added to consumer kit that is also connected to advertising networks is really such a good idea.
The most effective appears to be where your mother opens the basement door and yells down the stairs for you to get a job.
This of course has me thinking of the various emotional responses I have had to games, and I would love to see this sort of research done more to pin down various bits of how it works.
Out of all the games I have played, many have producd achievment highs, a few have produced the occasional jumpy anxious vibe, but only one game series ever "got me" and did it consistently and that was Assasins Creed.
Its funny because its not a FPS game, its rather unrealistic in so many ways but....there is something about jumping or rather, jumping, missing, and falling in that game that is just a heart stopper. I can't count the number of times I actually gasped and wanted to grab my chest physically after missing a jump.
No other game, much less series* has brought out such strong moments of feeling for me, and I play a lot of games.
* I have not actually played all of them, I have played to halfway through revelations, so this may or may not continue with the latest
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
...demonstrating that what the world needs isn't better hosts files but rather better contents filters. ;-)
Did someone paste a URL in the summary to bypass the paywall? That is so no cool. I'm being serious, not kidding.
Look up "the hum" or "Taos hum" on youtube. It's this exact phenomenon creating anxiety, high blood pressure and other physiological problems in people.