Games To Take Your Breath Away

Agent Provocateur writes "Here's a great use of biofeedback to control your game. Instead of using a joystick or mouse to control on-screen characters, the game uses sensors stuck to a player's body. See the story at the BBC." This was developed for educational and recuperative purposes, but seems to be the latest in a long line of unorthodox control devices like the Nintendo Power Glove or the Samba De Amigo maracas.

Games to take your breath away?

[Lars T.]

The story is 6 hours old, and not even a FP? Now that is breathtaking.

Anyway, apart (and maybe not even that) from using breathing for controling , this is hardly news. There have been similar simple games interfaced by biofeedback for several years.

Re:Games to take your breath away?

[Directrix1]

True, that. Is this some kind of new slashdot category that nobody is subscribed too, or something?

What was wrong with the power glove?

[roseblood]

Other than it's weight, and it was HOT and made you sweat? For moves you couldn't pull off w/ hand or finger moves there was a conviently located set of buttons and control pad on the wrist of the game playing hand.

Full set of motion sensors

[glenrm]

A full set of motion sensor, like a mo-cap unit would be much more fun.

The Obvious Joke

[Bander]

And I thought this was going to be about a game that casts you as a WHO operative tracking down the source of the SARS epidemic...

-- Bander

what happens.......

[95_gst_al]

....when you sneeze? Does it pause the game, or unleash a critical blow on your enemy?

OT: Maracas -- official or generic?

[twifkak]

Does anybody who's used both know if the generic maracas are a good approximation of the official? Looking to make a purchase.

Re:OT: Maracas -- official or generic?

[Allison Geode]

I have two sets: the first set broke. samba fans work well, but thats the set I had that broke: one of the maracas no longer responds. so I bought the other third party kind, Cha Cha Amigo, and it functions VERY well, however, the springs inside the maracas (that are used to detect motion) tend to run a bit stiff... so I opened mine up, and... well, I need to find my soldering iron, and get a new spring to make it all right. I've read that the cha cha amigo maracas work better than the samba fans, and ev

Re:OT: Maracas -- official or generic?

[twifkak]

:P thanks

Yeah, I've heard that technology line before; wanted to verify... Thanks for the info.

For people with disabilities

[ShaoK]

Way back in the early Nintendo Power days, they ran a small article on a handicapped boy who played NES. He controlled the D-Pad with his chin, and i believed pressed A or B by sucking/blowing into a tube.

(would probably work well for a lot of games, i would hate to play Track and Field that way)

"Alternative" methods of control are probably best used outside the sphere of commercial games. If an application of this is used it will end up in the pile of R.O.B.s, Power Pads, U-Forces, and specialized