Ilgner, Kuhlmann, Eirund, Hering-Bertram
Abstract:
Interaction in 3D virtual worlds that are typically found in first-person action games is mainly performed by keyboard input or pointing devices. Console games add new input devices like motion capturing or voice control. Also immersion is a key issue of this game, player's emotions are left out. To take this important communication factor for this genre into account this paper describes a method to capture the player emotions of anxiety and shock in a game and use this data to control player's and non-player-character's actions. We present a game setup that is specifically designed to validate this issue and establish an easy evaluation of our approach. A simple EEG based Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is used to translate amplitudes of alpha (stress) and beta (shock) rhythms to corresponding commands in the game engine. The game is set in a horror scenario in which the player has to prevent himself from having these emotions since their effects hinder his progress. The game had to implement an immersive atmosphere to bind the player emotionally and evoke the signals the BCI then captures and processes. The game engine takes these inputs and pass them to actions of game entities (visuals and enemy reactions). Finally the results of an evaluation with a group of test subjects is presented and possible future approaches and enhancements are discussed.