Designing Affective Games with Physiological Input (original) (raw)

A flexible bio-affective gaming interface

2010

Affective bio-feedback can be an important instrument to enhance the game experience. Several studies have provided evidence of the usefulness of physiological signals for affective gaming. However, due to discrepancies in the findings of psychology studies, the pattern matching models employed are limited in the number of emotions they are able to classify. This paper presents a bio-affective gaming interface (BAGI) that can be used to customize a game experience according to the player's emotional response. Its architecture offers important characteristics for gaming such as: flexibility, scalability and multi-category discrimination in real time. These features are important not only because they allow the classification with pattern matching and machine learning models but also because they make possible the reusability of previous findings and the inclusion of new models to the system.

Bio-Affective Computer Interface for Game Interaction

International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations, 2010

Affective bio-feedback can be an important instrument to enhance the game experience. Several studies have provided evidence of the usefulness of physiological signals for affective gaming; however, due to the limited knowledge about the distinctive autonomic signatures for every emotion, the pattern matching models employed are limited in the number of emotions they are able to classify. This paper presents a bio-affective gaming interface (BAGI) that can be used to customize a game experience according to the player’s emotional response. Its architecture offers important characteristics for gaming that are important because they make possible the reusability of previous findings and the inclusion of new models to the system. In order to prove the effectiveness of BAGI, two different types of neural networks have been trained to recognize emotions. They were incorporated into the system to customize, in real-time, the computer wallpaper according to the emotion experienced by the u...

Affective videogames and modes of affective gaming: assist me, challenge me, emote me

2005

In this paper we describe the fundamentals of affective gaming from a physiological point of view, covering some of the origins of the genre, how affective videogames operate and current conceptual and technological capabilities. We ground this overview of the ongoing research by taking an in-depth look at one of our own early biofeedback-based affective games. Based on our analysis of existing videogames and our own experience with affective videogames, we propose a new approach to game design based on several high-level design heuristics: assist me, challenge me and emote me (ACE), a series of gameplay "tweaks" made possible through affective videogames.

Affective Videogames: The Problem of Wearability and Comfort

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2011

The aim of this paper is to report the interaction design process followed by an interdisciplinary team to develop an innovative ICT wearable device for affective video gaming. The process follows Norman and Draper's User Centered Design principles [1] including: functional development, laboratory test of the technology with human subjects, product design, prototype realization and experimentation with final users. The functioning of the device is based on the detection of physiological parameters, e.g., Blood Volume Pulse (BVP), Temperature (T), and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), through electrodes placed on the forehead of the player. These signals are aimed at detecting the emotional state of the player by means of computational intelligence algorithms. This information can be used to modify the behavior of a videogame in order to maintain the player in the desired state of subjective enjoyment. Our goal was to develop a comfortable and easy to use device to avoid disturbs on the emotional state of the player.

Affective Videogames and Modes of Affective Gaming: Assist Me, Challenge Me, Emote Me (ACE)

Conference of the Digital Games Research Association, 2005

In this paper we describe the fundamentals of affective gaming from a physiological point of view, covering some of the origins of the genre, how affective videogames operate and current conceptual and technological capabilities. We ground this overview of the ongoing research by taking an in-depth look at one of our own early biofeedback-based affective games. Based on our analysis

Affective gaming: measuring emotion through the gamepad

CHI'03 extended abstracts on Human factors in …, 2003

In search of suitable methods for measuring the affective state of video-game players, this study investigates the hypothesis that the player's state of arousal will correspond with the pressure used to depress buttons on a gamepad. A video game was created that would detect the force of each button press during play. It was found that as the difficulty level of the game increased, players would hit the gamepad buttons significantly harder.

Towards the Development of an Affect-Sensitive Game

penoy.admu.edu.ph

The purpose of this study is to create a brain-computer interfacedependent game that relies on user affect as a method of control. The paper first summarizes the existing research into BCI-based applications. It then describes the steps the researchers have been taking in order to develop a game that makes use of the OCZ Neural-Impulse Actuator to retrieve brain signals from a user in order to manipulate different powers utilizing arousal.

Open Tool for Collecting Physiological Data: Collection of Emotional Data During Gameplay

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2018

Research in the emotional design area and games try to understand emotions that users have to relate to the artifact. To do so, the researchers use many tools like: questionnaires, interviews, self-report, eye tracking, facial expressions and physiological responses. However, researchers with low purchasing power suffer with the high costs of data collection instruments. The aim of this work consist in the development of a low cost physiological data collection tool with a reasonable and open level of precision, allowing the improvement of the tool. We describe the software and hardware development process as well as the process of data collection and analysis. As a preliminary test of the tool, we collected the data of 4 people playing a game called “Limbo”. The data shows the limitations of the tool and the possibilities of use.

Emopad: An Affective Gamepad

Affective Systems have been used in different applications, such as stress monitoring in aircraft seats and managing sensitivity in autism spectrum disorder. Although many scientific progresses have been made there are many computational challenges to be overcome in order to embedded affectivity into traditional user interfaces. For example, context-sensitive algorithms, low-complexity pattern recognition models and hardware customizations are requirements to support the simplification of user's experience becoming more intuitive, transparent and less obstructive. In this paper an affective gamepad is presented. This acquisition system has been developed to improve user's biofeedback when they are playing games on Microsoft Xbox or Sony PlayStation. The preliminary version of Emopad is able to capture Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), Temperature, Force, Heart Rate (HR) and its variability (HRV) by photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor while complementary algorithms are executed to filter noise, recognize interests patterns and classify events related to user's emotional states. All processing phases are embedded into Emopad, and they explore microcontroller's dynamic power management. Emopad has been developed to deal with energy-efficient and platform-independent requirements. Concerning to this paper's aim, the acquisition systems development is highlighted. Also, the sliding window-based algorithm is presented and evaluated. It has been applied after sampling in GSR, Force, Temperature and HR signals to detect events related to emotional responses. The success of affective gamepads can lead to a paradigm shift, because traditional consoles can be configured to work as Point-of-Care technologies. Consequently, they can receive, process and transmit physiological data and events related to clinical conditions about their users.

Total Immersion: Designing for Affective Symbiosis in a Virtual Reality Game with Haptics, Biosensors, and Emotive Agents

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2017

Affective symbiosis for human-computer interaction refers to the dynamic relationship between the user and affective virtual agents. In order to facilitate a true, immersive experience, we believe that it is necessary to adapt the presentation of an affective agent to the user's affective state. Investigating the experience, behavior, and physiological correlates of affective events, such as winning and losing during a competitive game, therefore might be used to adapt the agent's emotional states and system events. An experimental virtual reality game environment was designed as a stepping stone toward a system to demonstrate affective symbiosis. Users were invited to play a game of air hockey with affective agents in virtual reality. We collected the electrocardiography, electrodermal activity, and postural data, as well as self-reports, to investigate how emotional events affected physiology, behavior, and experience. The users were found to be engaged in the competition strongly while only paying limited attention to their adversaries' emotional expressions. We discuss how game events are much stronger causes for affective responses, with the physiological effects of winning and losing becoming more enhanced as the game progresses. We discuss how an affective, symbiotic system could implement both game events and dynamic, affective agents to create a system for total immersion.