Paper Reading #18: Biofeedback Game Design: Using Direct and Indirect Physiological Control to Enhance Game Interaction

Biofeedback Game Design: Using Direct and Indirect Physiological Control to Enhance Game Interaction

Chi '11

By:
Lennart E. Nacke, Michael Kalyn, Calvin Lough, Regan L. Mandryk.

• Lennart E. Nacke has a PhD in game development. He is currently a HCI and Game Science Assistant professor at UOIT.
• Michael Kalyn is currently working on his MSc in Computer Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan.
• Calvin Lough is also a student a the University of Saskatchewan.
• Regan L. Mandryk is currently an Assistant professor teaching HCI at the University of Saskatchewan.

 Summary
Hypothesis
The authors of this paper have hypothesised that greater Biofeedback and increased Physiological control of games will results in a superior gaming experience for those involved.

Methods
To appropriately and fully test their system the authors had a set of users who were asked to participate in 3 different tests. There was a control test where users just played the author designed game with a traditional controller with no physiological augmentation. They played once with only direct physiological controls and once with only indirect physiological controls. At the end of all 3 runs the users were asked to answer a few questions so as to allow the authors to judge the success of their system.

Results
While users preferred the greater involvement in the game, they showed some hesitation towards the added complexity and the new existence of a learning curve. However all admitted that the new direct physiological sensors added a huge amount of novelty to the games and once the complexity and learning curve had been overcome the added benefit was found to be exceedingly desirable by most users.

Contents 
The researchers had two key points of interest they wished to investigate: Whether gamers are tolerant of physiological sensors being a part of their gaming experience and secondly  what type of gaming sensors work out best. To test their hypothesis they created a First Person Shooter that limited the input to a traditional gaming control and then further expanded upon that with physiological sensors.

Discussion
I personally found the entire idea to be brilliant. God knows the addition of vibrating remote controls did wonders for the Playstation. Given sufficient tweaking a game developer backing this idea has exceptional potential, not to mention the very real ability to put the Wii out of business. As far as the paper goes I feel it was well thought out, the authors knew precisely what they knew, and what they didn't and tested their system exceedingly well to get the answers they needed.