Hot & Cold Game Controllers Anyone?

[dungeonseeker_1]

From Kotaku

When you play with thermoelectrics, you're bound to get burned, or possibly chilled.

Researchers from the at the Tokyo Metropolitan University have discovered that certain something that's been missing from every video game that's ever featured lava and ice levels: ThermoGame, a video game interaction system that delivers sensations of hot and cold to the player.

How does it work? Small solid-state devices use electricity to generate and remove heat. It's all based off of the Peltier effect, named after the French physicist Jean-Charles Peltier, who discovered the temperature-changing effects of electrical currents in 1834.

A pair of these devices is housed in the upper and lower halves of a video game controller's casing. At appropriate times during gameplay, the devices activate, rapidly cooling or heating the controller surface, bringing the sensation to temperature change to the player's hands.

While the change in temperature is small, with only a ten degree difference in the controller's temperature in five seconds, researchers found that this small change provides enough of a sensory nudge to draw players deeper into the virtual environment.

The technology, presented at SIGGRAPH 2010 this week, was developed in cooperation with the National Institute of Special Needs Education, with potential uses including temperature-based control mechanisms for use by the blind.

It might not be smell-o-vision, but this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Sounds like it could be quite "cool" () if done correctly.

[skippy72294]

Dude, I just want that too keep my hands cool while kicking immature 12 year old ♥♥♥ on xbox live...

[Amun]

Gimmick.

[kooG]

Originally Posted by Amun

Gimmick.

what he said.

[Baron_Fel]

Originally Posted by Amun

Gimmick.

certainly no more of a gimmick than something like rumble.

[smellykaka]

Originally Posted by Baron_Fel

certainly no more of a gimmick than something like rumble.

More of a gimmick IMO, since I like rumble but aren't the least interested in this.

[Baron_Fel]

Originally Posted by smellykaka

More of a gimmick IMO, since I like rumble but aren't the least interested in this.

well you have used and experienced rumble but not this. I dont see how you can judge how good it is without using it. Sure it sounds stupid but so would rumble to me if it didnt exist.

[Washell]

Chicken and egg. No game developer is going to implement without a significant install base. No significant amount of consumers is going to buy it without a large number of games supporting it.

The only chance these kind of gimmicks have is to be included on the controller packed with the launch of a new console. So basically, you won't see this until 2012 or later assuming Sony or MS is interested.

[Justin K.]

"That'l be 100$ sir" I could just imagine that...