Monday, January 25, 2010

The Future of Video Games

In the online news article The Future of Video Game Input: Muscle Sensors, the author discusses a new technology utilizing Electromyography sensors hooked up to a person's forearms. These sensors detect the muscle movement and converts it to an electronic signal. These signals can be used for pretty much anything you could imagine. A video in the article shows a man playing Guitar Hero hooked up to the device. He is strumming the air with one hand and holding different fingers together to control the frets. Even though he does not have a guitar controller in his hand, his muscle movements are converted to a signal which the game is adapted to recognize, and his movements show up on the screen as he plays the song.
Although the article focuses on more novelty uses of the technology, it could have many far more important uses. A surgeon could control miniature tools using a hands free input. The muscle data could be used to design robotic implants and prosthetics. With Bluetooth are phones are already hands-free, but in the next ten years, with this technology, who knows what other daily tasks will be hands-free? I would enjoy a virtual tv remote that you can flip the channels with and not have to worry about losing under the couch.