PhysioSense Controller: Self-Actuating Button Based on Player Physiology for Improved Avatar Control

Abstract

Games generally require a certain level of skill to control the avatar. However, this can also potentially lead to frustration since there is no way for a game to truly adapt to the player's skill during gameplay. We propose the PhysioSense controller, a custom designed gamepad controller that senses the player's electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate, and motion to compute their cognitive load level in real-time and trigger a haptic feedback during key events in the game. The haptic feedback is delivered via subtle actuation on the button, allowing the player to still retain their sense of agency. We performed an initial evaluation on the PhysioSense Controller using a platforming action game with three custom difficulty levels. We found that there was a clear physiological and motion response to the presented difficulties, and that the player's behavior changes to adapt to them. We believe that our system can potentially make more players enjoy most games in the future regardless of presented difficulty.