Immersion: Video Game Biofeedback

immersionbiometrics

We’re not sure how scientific the following hack is, but it’s certainly interesting. Designer [Samuel Matson], interested in the correlation between gaming and stress, has pieced together a device that provides biofeedback during gameplay. He referenced this /r/gaming thread—which measured a player’s heart rate during a Halo session—as well as conducted his own tests that monitored the heart rate of gamers. After several iterations, [Samuel] had the above-pictured headset, which features the familiar and hackable pulse sensor placed by the earpiece.

The headset uses a TinyDuino and a Bluetooth TinyShield to communicate to the gamer’s computer in real time. He didn’t stop with simply monitoring heart rates, however; he integrated the signal into the game design. [Samuel] used indie-favorite game engine Unity3d to create a third-person shooter that reacts to the pulse sensor by raising the difficulty level when the player’s heart rate increases. It seems that his goal is to reduce or control stress among players, but we suspect inverting the model may be more effective: have the game cut you some slack when you’re stressed and present a challenge when you’re mellow.

[Thanks Ken]

16 thoughts on “Immersion: Video Game Biofeedback

  1. I really like the way it looks. It looks like a finished and polished product.
    But I don’t get why the difficulty should go up when you are stressed. I would think it should go up when you are bored, and down when you get too stressed, right?

  2. “but we suspect inverting the model may be more effective: have the game cut you some slack when you’re stressed and present a challenge when you’re mellow.”

    The issue here is that you get rewarded for raging – which is the opposite of what the project is about :) AFAIK this project was made as a reference to gamer rage, not gamer stress.

    1. Can you fake raging though? (or does that matter); for instance, if the game notices you’re beginning to become agitated and gets a little easier, wouldn’t that curve difficulty (and thereby reduce raging?)

      Assuming rage and difficulty are related in that way.

      1. I think the idea here is; if the game gets harder you’ll probably lose i.e die. So, in order to win or stay alive longer you will need to learn to deal with your stress level, get calm, etc.

Leave a Reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.