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Latest Kinect sensors allow games to feed off your fear
TECHNOLOGY 20thC.Fox/Everett/Rex Features
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are having a good time. “If I poke you with a stick, there is a spike in arousal,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean you like it and want me to do it again.” Biometric data from Kinect will still need to be combined with assumptions about what kind of emotional response a section of game is aiming for, says Rigby. For example, in a battle against a big
“If I poke you with a stick, there is a spike in arousal. But that doesn’t mean you want me to do it again” boss, players will typically tolerate dying about four times –Are you having fun yet?– before getting frustrated, he says. After that, a game might be programmed to lower the level of difficulty. Feedback could be used to tailor this to an individual’s preference. Our bodies give away other The new Kinect sensors can detect your emotions, and clues too. “Kinect could measure games will be able to adjust to make your heart race how much mental effort you’re putting into a game or a specific Kinect is a huge improvement on difficulty or intensity in real time, task within a game,” says games Douglas Heaven its predecessor (see “New wave”). psychologist and writer Jamie depending on how excited the YOU’RE cornered and wounded. It will have HD colour and Madigan. “And it can tell when system thinks you currently are. Cowering behind a crate, all you infrared cameras that can see if “The key is understanding what you’ve given up.” can do is hide and wait for the your eyes are open or closed in the makes games fundamentally For example, your pupils acid-spraying alien to move on. dark. It will be able to detect your dilate when you are engaged in a satisfying,” says Scott Rigby, You desperately look for a pattern pulse from fluctuations in skin cognitive challenge, and return to co-founder of Immersyve, in its movements, hoping for a tone and, by measuring how light a gaming consultancy in normal when you have given up chance to sneak past to safety. reflects off your face, it will know because something is too hard. Celebration, Florida, that advises So far, so scripted. But the when you start to sweat. “If the Kinect could reliably detect on ways to engage players by chance still doesn’t come. This will allow the new Kinect pupil sizes, it would open up a gathering this biometric data. As you’re stuck in your corner, to bring emotional gaming to whole new level of scaling game “I love the promise of it.” heart rate rising and a sheen of your living room. Games can use difficulty,” says Madigan. For But Rigby warns that detecting perspiration forming on your the biological data to orchestrate example, a puzzle game could signs of high emotion in a player face, a camera by the TV feeds your experience by adjusting the does not automatically mean they get harder until the player enters data to the game. The system is the “zone” of peak performance – constantly judging. How much when gaming is at its most longer can you take the tension? satisfying. It could also offer a hint Is this still fun? when it detects you have given up. The Kinect has been given a in the room. This lets the system The latest game spawned from Systems that could detect when complete overhaul. Its field of view build up far more detailed 3D images the Alien film franchise is being you are mentally taxed could also has widened and its resolution is full than before. Its software can pick out made by Creative Assembly, a take advantage – pushing in-game 1080p high definition. Before it was up to six people, applying a detailed game studio in Horsham, UK. transactions such as buying an not much better than a basic webcam. model of the human skeleton and It is likely to be one of the first extra life or better weapons, for How it perceives depth, and so muscle structure to what the camera games to explore the potential example. “Willpower is like a your movements, has also changed. sees. As well as monitoring heart of Microsoft’s next-generation muscle that can be exhausted It uses a time-of-flight camera that rate, fitness games will then be Kinect sensors for the Xbox One by any mental activity,” says measures the distance infrared light able to advise on posture and games console. Announced at Madigan. “When it’s depleted travels between the lens and objects weight distribution, for example. the same time as the unveiling of we’re more likely to do dumb stuff the Xbox One last week, the new like make impulse purchases.” n
Feeding on your fear
New wave
1 June 2013 | NewScientist | 19
For more technology stories, visit newscientist.com/technology
are having a good time. “If I poke you with a stick, there is a spike in arousal,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean you like it and want me to do it again.” Biometric data from Kinect will still need to be combined with assumptions about what kind of emotional response a section of game is aiming for, says Rigby. For example, in a battle against a big
“If I poke you with a stick, there is a spike in arousal. But that doesn’t mean you want me to do it again” boss, players will typically tolerate dying about four times –Are you having fun yet?– before getting frustrated, he says. After that, a game might be programmed to lower the level of difficulty. Feedback could be used to tailor this to an individual’s preference. Our bodies give away other The new Kinect sensors can detect your emotions, and clues too. “Kinect could measure games will be able to adjust to make your heart race how much mental effort you’re putting into a game or a specific Kinect is a huge improvement on difficulty or intensity in real time, task within a game,” says games Douglas Heaven its predecessor (see “New wave”). psychologist and writer Jamie depending on how excited the YOU’RE cornered and wounded. It will have HD colour and Madigan. “And it can tell when system thinks you currently are. Cowering behind a crate, all you infrared cameras that can see if “The key is understanding what you’ve given up.” can do is hide and wait for the your eyes are open or closed in the makes games fundamentally For example, your pupils acid-spraying alien to move on. dark. It will be able to detect your dilate when you are engaged in a satisfying,” says Scott Rigby, You desperately look for a pattern pulse from fluctuations in skin cognitive challenge, and return to co-founder of Immersyve, in its movements, hoping for a tone and, by measuring how light a gaming consultancy in normal when you have given up chance to sneak past to safety. reflects off your face, it will know because something is too hard. Celebration, Florida, that advises So far, so scripted. But the when you start to sweat. “If the Kinect could reliably detect on ways to engage players by chance still doesn’t come. This will allow the new Kinect pupil sizes, it would open up a gathering this biometric data. As you’re stuck in your corner, to bring emotional gaming to whole new level of scaling game “I love the promise of it.” heart rate rising and a sheen of your living room. Games can use difficulty,” says Madigan. For But Rigby warns that detecting perspiration forming on your the biological data to orchestrate example, a puzzle game could signs of high emotion in a player face, a camera by the TV feeds your experience by adjusting the does not automatically mean they get harder until the player enters data to the game. The system is the “zone” of peak performance – constantly judging. How much when gaming is at its most longer can you take the tension? satisfying. It could also offer a hint Is this still fun? when it detects you have given up. The Kinect has been given a in the room. This lets the system The latest game spawned from Systems that could detect when complete overhaul. Its field of view build up far more detailed 3D images the Alien film franchise is being you are mentally taxed could also has widened and its resolution is full than before. Its software can pick out made by Creative Assembly, a take advantage – pushing in-game 1080p high definition. Before it was up to six people, applying a detailed game studio in Horsham, UK. transactions such as buying an not much better than a basic webcam. model of the human skeleton and It is likely to be one of the first extra life or better weapons, for How it perceives depth, and so muscle structure to what the camera games to explore the potential example. “Willpower is like a your movements, has also changed. sees. As well as monitoring heart of Microsoft’s next-generation muscle that can be exhausted It uses a time-of-flight camera that rate, fitness games will then be Kinect sensors for the Xbox One by any mental activity,” says measures the distance infrared light able to advise on posture and games console. Announced at Madigan. “When it’s depleted travels between the lens and objects weight distribution, for example. the same time as the unveiling of we’re more likely to do dumb stuff the Xbox One last week, the new like make impulse purchases.” n
Feeding on your fear
New wave
1 June 2013 | NewScientist | 19