Comments for Physiological Computing

Comment on Making Data Meaningful by Steve Fairclough

Steve Fairclough — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:17:35 +0000

Nice post Kiel. It seems to me that this kind of visualisation is well-suited to a ‘zoom-lens’ model where the representation of different states (colours in your example) remains fixed whilst the level of detail is scalable. For instance, I know the system works on the basis of four (?) colours at the moment, which is fine for this high-level visualisation. But we could set up subcategories for each zone/colour, e.g. four shades of green depending on where HR falls in the green zone – these subcategories would only become apparent if we looked at a heat map at higher level of resolution, such as 24 hours.

Comment on Functional vocabulary: an issue for Emotiv and Brain-Computer Interfaces by Kiel Gilleade

Kiel Gilleade — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:39:16 +0000

A nice example of an intutive physiological interaction in a MMORPG can be found in “Turning Shortcomings into Challenges: Brain-Computer Interfaces for Games” http://www.springerlink.com/content/hq7l89617x517u72/.

Here they mapped the alpha activity to the druids shape shifting ability, and so with low alpha activity the bear form would be triggered (implying an agitated state) and with high alpha activity their humanoid form would be triggered (rest state).

This relationship is a natural fit as the players relaxed and stressed states map to similar avatars states. Also given each state has its own unqiue power and abilities the player will be encouraged to flip their physiological state instead of retaining one state over the other.

This mechanic also has a rather entertaining hook as the player changes their physiological state in a similar manner to the ability required (i.e. become serene to confer with nature and cast spells or flip out and maul your enemies). With a larger functional vocab it’ll be fascinating to see what improvements we can make over simple binary (or uni-dimensional) relationships between physiolgical and videogame states.

Comment on Functional vocabulary: an issue for Emotiv and Brain-Computer Interfaces by Steve Fairclough

Steve Fairclough — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:01:12 +0000

I think you’re right. It’s early days and we shouldn’t be too critical of the first systems to hit the market. I didn’t mean my piece to be overly critical of the Emotiv approach. For eyes- and hands-busy applications, like MMORPGs, just being able to execute a small number of commands would nicely complement your standard gamepad or keyboard/mouse input. As well as being functional, it should really add a new dimension to gameplay.

Comment on Functional vocabulary: an issue for Emotiv and Brain-Computer Interfaces by Yanis

Yanis — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:29:28 +0000

Very clear and convincing. I bought my EPOC headset a few days ago and expect it to be delivered soon. My guess is that this emerging technology will probably not be very effective at first, as is the case for so many early applications.
I want to be an early buyer and contribute to the success of Emotiv. Let’s hope that this device will really help me pull out nice combos or complex strings of spells in the next MMORPG I subscribe too!
Now That would prove to be handy! ;)

Comment on Post E3: Without Vitality we draw upon Innergy by Steve Fairclough

Steve Fairclough — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:08:54 +0000

When I watched the Innergy demo at E3, my first thought was ‘that’s not a game, it’s a biofeedback regime.’ In my opinion, a biofeedback game should be just that – a blending of game play strategies (that you describe in bold) that incorporates a biofeedback element. Simply controlling physiological activity cannot be the end-goal of the game, at least not any game that is designed to be played for more than 5 minutes. The fact that it isn’t being released on a console is an indication that is designed as a casual ‘game’ for the stressed office worker to play during a coffee break.