I think this article is funny. It appears they are trying to make games even more "realistic". If they want to feel the sensation of hot or cold, why don't they just "go outside"???
Adding Temperature to Human-Computer Interaction
Written by: Christopher Mims is a journalist who covers technology and science for just about everybody.
An experimental new game controller adds the sensation of hot and cold to users' experience of a simulated environment
Touch interfaces and haptic feedback are already a part of how we interact with computers, in the form of iPads, rumbling video game controllers and even three-dimensional-joysticks. As the range of interactions with digital environments expands, it's logical to ask what's next: Smell-o-vision has been on the horizon for something like 50 years, but there's a dark horse stalking this race: thermoelectrics.
Based on the Peltier effect, these solid-state devices are easy to incorporate into objects of reasonable size, i.e. video game controllers.
In this configuration, just announced at the 2010 SIGGRAPH conference, a pair of thermoelectric surfaces on either side of a controller rapidly heat up or cool down in order to simulate appropriate conditions in a virtual environment.
The temperature difference isn't large - less than 10 degrees heating or cooling after five seconds, but the researchers involved discovered that, as with haptics, just a little sensory nudge can be enough to convince involved participants in a virtual environment that they are experiencing something like the real thing.
This graph shows that users responded to the change in temperature in a second (for cooling) or after about two and a half seconds (for heating), a difference they attribute to the inherent difference in sensitivity to hot or cold of the human palm.
The research was conducted by researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University, with collaboration from the National Institute of Special Needs Education. Not coincidentally, among their aims for the device, they list temperature-transmitting interfaces for the blind.
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/post.aspx?bid=377&bpid=25544
[color=blue]Admin Edit: Link to gaming blog removed[/color]
Liz Woolley
Posting this article on the latest gaming developments seems like posting an article about the latest microbrew beers at a site for recovering alcoholics.
I'm sure your intentions are good Liz, but this article seems so out-of-place here. I would never post pictures of game controllers here or information on the latest developments. That seems cruel.
Scott
What you feed grows, and what you starve withers away.
Wow Liz! It seems as if they are trying to suck us deeper into the Matrix.
Morpheus says: The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
The question is....will you be able/courageous/adult enough to sacrifice that which merely pleases you...for that which will truly fulfill you? That is the question of personal growth.
~~~Dem518
~~~wow-free since 8/22/09
They are trying to get to similulating human contact and the warmth of touch and skin. When they get that working i fear for us even more. And sadly, part of me wonders and is curious...
Ariadne~
Letting go again - Change is never easy, I fight to hold on, and I fight to let go.
My thoughts were similar ---"Great...one step closer to building robots with human like skin..." Scary, indeed.
I find it ironic that the gaming industry would be so happy about this when they are just imitating something that is already invented--the human touch (specifically the sensation of hot/cold). I find myself asking the same question as Liz "Can't they just go outside?" lol
The unexamined life is not worth living ~Socrates
Scott,
Liz posted this article in the "World News" section of our message boards, which is where it belongs. She is trying to share with us how painfully "real" virtual worlds are rapidly becoming.
Perhaps when you log on to browse our message boards, you just choose to read those under the "OLGA (Recovering Gamer) Message Boards." Click on the ones titled "I need help for gamers," "Progress Report," "12 Step Info," etc. :)
Solei
-6 Years Free of Online Gaming-
My point is, if the gaming companies are trying to make gaming so "real" why not just live "real" life? Liz
Liz Woolley
Scott,
Maybe, just maybe its time to suck it up, quit what ever you need to quit and join us in NOT playing what we did before.
It really is great !
-Tory
hi Solei,
Your suggestion to avoid the World News section is very good. My thought is: Why does OLGA have a section on its website that gaming addicts should avoid?
Other 12-step fellowships "do not wish to engage in any controversy" and "neither endorse nor oppose any causes." An AA website I use never has any articles about the effects of alcohol or the temperance movement. NA groups do not talk about the latest types of drugs to hit the streets. If I tried to talk about any of these outside issues at a meeting, members who care most about recovery would speak up and say, "Those topics do not belong here."
OLGA has the same types of traditions:
5. The group has but one primary purpose-to carry its message to the excessive gamer who still suffers.
10. Online Gamers Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the OLGA / OLG-Anon name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
I believe these traditions serve the various fellowships very well.
Scott
What you feed grows, and what you starve withers away.
Hi Scott,
That section will eventually be moved to our OLGA/OLG-Anon World Services website, when we get that up and running. That section is mainly for education of the public.... Several other sections will be moved, too. OOWS does not follow steps or traditions.
Liz
Liz Woolley
Thanks for all the work you do here Liz.
I didn't realize at first that the post was in the World News section. I got to it from "Recent posts" which shows all posts and does not show which section each post is in.
I'm glad to hear the World Services and OLGA websites will be split up in the future. thanks again
Scott
What you feed grows, and what you starve withers away.