Video game consoles could double as lie detector

 

Nintendo Wii introduced at the Electronics Entertainment Expo a sensor that goes on your finger and hooks up to your controller. It will measure "skin conductance” and could be used at a lie detector. Friendly Computers thinks you may find this cool too…

At the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) trade show in Los Angeles, Nintendo announced the Wii Vitality Sensor accessory for its market-leading Nintendo Wii game console.

The Wii Vitality Sensor attaches to the user's finger to read their pulse and measure "skin conductance".

Games using the Wii Vitality Sensor have not been announced yet, but Nintendo said the Vitality Sensor would "provide information to the users about the body's inner world".

Nintendo staff at E3 suggested their ground-breaking device would enable developers to create games which check stress or aid relaxation.

Skin conductance response is a measurement of fluctuations in the electrical conductivity of skin -- also known as electrodermal response and galvanic skin response.

These fluctuations in conductivity correlate with changes in emotions, such as experiencing fear, anger and desire.

That's why polygraphs - generally called lie detectors - measure skin conductivity changes along with other bodily responses including pulse and blood pressure.

Polygraphs are used to measure how a person responds to a series of questions to try to determine if they are telling the truth.

Their use for interrogating suspects is surrounded with controversy because their accuracy has been challenged.

You can imagine games along "truth or dare" lines being developed for fun at home on a Nintendo Wii fitted with a Wii Vitality Sensor.

The Wii could use the sensor to assess whether or not the player was telling the truth.

Imagine the embarrassing consequences such games will have - ranging from catching out a child's fibs to revealing a partner's infidelities.

 

Source: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25613185-11869,00.html

Too Much Computer Gaming Can Steal Your Sleep.

If you are an excessive gamer then you may not be getting enough sleep. Friendly Computers found this study that you may find interesting:

The thrills and chills of computer games can be a nocturnal nightmare for some people, new research suggests.

Excessive gamers get too little sleep at night, then spend their days struggling to stay awake. But many of them aren't aware of the link between the two, the study found.

The study revealed that college students, who play video games more than seven hours a week and consider themselves addicted, sleep almost two hours less a night than occasional or non-gamers.

The research team, led by Amanda Woolems of the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, collected data on 137 students. Nearly 11 percent said gaming interfered with their sleep, and 12.6 percent said they were addicted to gaming.

"Our statistics revealed that those who admitted addiction scored higher on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale," Woolems said in a prepared statement. "It surprised us, however, that of the people who admitted being addicted to gaming, only about a third of them recognized an interference with their sleep."

Other health-care professionals weren't surprised by the study's findings.

"These findings are not unexpected," said sleep expert Dr. Alexandre Rocha Abreu, an assistant professor in the division of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida, who was not involved with the study.

A concern is that people who are sleep-deprived don't function optimally in the daytime. "These people may have some cognitive impairment," he said.

It's not just the excitement of gaming that keeps folks wired. Another factor in sleep loss is the environment. "These people tend to be in a room where there is a lot of indirect light from the TV and the screen on the computer. The computer screen tends to simulate sunlight, so even at night you can delay your sleep phase," Abreu said.

Also, because of different times zones, it's possible to play computer games around the clock. "You can be playing games 24/7 with different people from different countries. These people tend to sleep less," he said.

The results of the study were to be presented Monday at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies annual meeting, in Seattle.

Another study presented at the meeting concluded that sleep problems among children often go unnoticed by their doctors.

According to the study, data from pediatricians on nearly 155,00 patients, ranging in age from infancy to 18 years old, showed that fewer than 4 percent were diagnosed with a sleep problem. The most common diagnoses were sleep disorders that were "not otherwise specified" (1.42 percent), bedwetting (1.24 percent), sleep disordered breathing (1.04 percent) and insomnia (0.05 percent).

Lead researcher Lisa Meltzer, of the Sleep Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, noted the rate of diagnosis in this study is far below the prevalence of children's sleep problems reported in epidemiological studies.

"Sleep is often discussed during checkups for young children, but it may not come up as a topic with teenagers, resulting in an under-diagnosis of sleep disorders for this group of adolescents," Meltzer said in a prepared statement. "Pediatricians should ask about sleep during every well-child visit. Children who snore, have problems falling asleep, are difficult to wake in the morning or who fall asleep in school should be further evaluated for sleep disorders."

Source: http://www.ajc.com/health/content/shared-auto/healthnews/cpui/627831.html

Nintendo's Fils-Aime takes aim at rest of world

Friendly Computers found this article which includes an interview with Reggie Fils-Aime, who is the COO for Nintendo. It touches on the economy and the future of Nintendo. We think you may find this interesting:

LOS ANGELES--Although the video games industry has begun to take some hits--suggesting it may not be recession-proof after all--Nintendo has managed to maintain a solid financial performance.

Its sales are up 19 percent year-over-year, according to the company, which would be impressive in any year, but is particularly so in the current economic climate.

At E3 here this week, Nintendo made a few bold moves, but tended to play it relatively safe. It unveiled a new version of its mega-hit exercise game, "Wii Fit Plus," and showed off the next-generation of its motion-sensitive controller, the Wii Motion Plus.

Do you think all the innovation we're seeing in accessories for Wii, Xbox, and PS3 is making a rush to the next generation of consoles unnecessary?
Fils-Aime: We certainly believe there's a lot more Wii volume to be done, and a lot more games for the Wii. And that's not just what we've been able to do with accessories like the Balance Board, or future accessories like the Vitality Sensor. It's also what we're able to do with Wii Motion Plus, from an archery standpoint, or what we're doing with ping-pong, in putting this big spin and curve on the ball. Who would have thought that possible three or four years ago? Nintendo's driving a focus on innovation that maybe wasn't in our industry four or five years ago. I think that's where the major difference is.

One of the things that has driven the mystique of the Wii has been how hard it has been to buy one. But now it's available anywhere, anytime. Does that take away the mystique?
Fils-Aime: I don't think so. From the start, we wanted to reach out to people who did not consider themselves gamers. The only way to reach them is for the product to be readily available, because they won't sleep out in front of a store to buy a Wii. We had to get to the point of having massive availability. We're selling 300,000 or 400,000 units a month, 30 months after launch, and that's never been done before. We've blown past the PlayStation 2 sales rate after 30 months.

How did you solve the availability issue?
Fils-Aime: We've been manufacturing it at a rate that's never been seen before.

But why were there still shortages last holiday season?
Fils-Aime: The fact is, we've been producing at this rate for a year. It's taken us that long to satisfy all of that pent up demand. Now we can do some outreach to people who in the past were saying, "I might be interested in the Wii, but I'm not going to go sleep out in front of a retailer."

With their announced new motion-sensitive control systems, Sony and Microsoft seem to be planning to aggressively go after the elusive mainstream audience. But perception-wise, at least, Nintendo maybe has the opposite problem: You've got the mainstream. How do you reach that core gamer?
Fils-Aime: We have near-term, mid-term and long-term opportunities. The near-term opportunity is the consumer who owns an PS3 or an Xbox 360 and has been bad-mouthing Wii to their friends. We can reach that consumer with games like The Conduit or Tiger Woods with Wii Motion Plus. The mid-term opportunity is the more mainstream consumer who saw Wii at a friend's house but just needs a little extra incentive to get into our game. That's what Wii Motion Plus and Wii Fit Plus and new Super Mario Bros. Wii will hopefully achieve. And the long-term opportunity is that person who currently says, "I don't play video games and I have no interest in playing video games."

What about the Halo audience?
Fils-Aime: We think we win over the Halo audience with something like The Conduit, a multi-player, online, shooting experience, or Dead Space Extraction. And you know what? Once those people buy into Wii, they'll go buy Mario Kart or Wii Fit Plus. We're not going to be satisfied just picking up that existing gamer. We have to reach beyond and get that consumer who doesn't game. That's the only way we'll be able to continue growing as a company and as an industry.

That's not an unlimited audience, right?
Fils-Aime: It's not. And actually the challenge increases the further you dip into this group. Two years ago, theoretically, there were ten consumers who said, "I would never play video games." We picked them off one at a time with Wii Fit or Brain Age 2. Now maybe there's five left, but now the bar is substantially higher for how to get them. Which is why we're looking to push the envelope with something like the Vitality Sensor, and why we have to make current gamers say, "Huh? What is that?" But that's exactly the type of reaction we got a couple of years ago when we first talked about "Wii Fit," and look where we are now.

You just announced the multi-player Super Mario Bros. Wii. How important is that for broadening your Mario audience?
Fils-Aime: I think Super Mario Bros. Wii will first appeal to the traditional Mario fan. But I think we'll also appeal to the consumer who first bought a Wii to play Wii Fit or Wii Fit Plus, who maybe has felt that platforming games are a little too challenging. We'll get that consumer because it's Mario, and because they can play with other people, whether competitively or cooperatively. That's exactly what happened when we launched Super Mario Bros. DS. Initially it was the Nintendo fan. But the only way it's been able to stay in the top ten month after month is because we've reached beyond the Nintendo fan into the brand-new consumer who's picked up a DS for the first time.

Can you talk about what you saw from Microsoft and Sony when it comes to the motion-sensitive controllers. It will be a sort of a new arms race.
Fils-Aime: The only thing I'll say is a rhetorical question. Is it fun? If it's fun, then I tip my hat and say, "Well done." But what's happening sounds to me a lot like, "Who's got the prettiest picture. Who's got high-definition. Who has the best processing power?" It sounds like technology, when the consumer wants to be entertained. Our focus is how do we take active play and make it entertainment. And that's what we're going to continue to focus on. And I think we've done a great job with Wii Motion Plus, and the Balance Board. And we're going to continue to push the envelope in ways to make it more fun.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10257720-235.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

Game Industry Remains Optimistic Despite Economy

While other companies suffer, the video game industry is expecting to continue to grow. Friendly Computers found out that video games are expected to make more money then movies this year. Read on to see what may be happening this year:

Video games expected to make more than the movie industry

The global economic recession has forced most companies regardless of their industry to take a hard look at expenses. Some companies big and small have found that continuing to operate was simply impossible.
The view game industry is traditionally one of the strongest in the technology sector as more and more consumers take up video games. Reuters reports that game publishers came together this week to report an optimistic outlook for the industry despite the poor economy.
EA, Activision, and THQ say that they all plan to focus on mostly blockbuster titles and franchises that have been best sellers in past years. Out of the three major game developers, only Activision was able to turn a profit in the last quarterly results posted.
According to estimates by research firm NPD, spending on video games in America dropped 17% in April compared to previous months.
THQ CEO Brian Farrell told Reuters, "Our actual net development budget has been significantly reduced this year to $120 million ... but its focus is on a few of these quality titles."
Industry executives see hope for the future of gaming though with more and more people starting to play games, the market is expanding beyond the traditionally male user base to include women and older people.
The industry is optimistic because the poor economy has consumers looking for cheaper entertainment, and some people are finding that buying even the most expensive video games is cheaper than taking a vacation or other forms of entertainment. Some of the most expensive video games like Tony Hawk Ride sell for over $100, though most games are around $50-$60.
Analyst David Ernst from Hudson Square research predicts that video game sales for the fiscal year that ended in March will be about $29 billion. That number is larger than the predicted revenue generated by the movie industry at $27 billion.
Publishers are also hoping that major console makers will cut prices this year. An increase in console sales means an increase in game sales as well.
THQ CEO Brian Farrell said, "We love those price wars. I wouldn't rule out that if Sony cuts, Microsoft and Nintendo may respond. When those guys have their hardware wars, we supply the ammunition."

 

Source: http://www.dailytech.com/Game+Industry+Remains+Optimistic+Despite+Economy/article15332.htm

E3 2009: Project Natal

 

Microsoft is developing a wireless motion sensing controller for Xbox 360 which can sense your movements without you having to hold any type of controller. Friendly Computers thinks this will be a cool addition to the Xbox line. Check it out :

LOS ANGELES - The Electronic Entertainment Expo hasn’t even officially started yet, and already a major announcement has come to light.

Microsoft Corp. had been widely predicted to unveil at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, a wireless motion sensing controller for their leading Xbox 360 video game and entertainment console.

The fortune tellers were close, but they left out one detail: its not a controller at all.

Microsoft’s Project Natal, revealed for the first time at a media briefing at the University of Southern California’s Galen Center in downtown Los Angeles on Monday morning, is a set-top device that promises to recognize users’ voices, faces, and emotions and allow for total body motion capture with no device or controller physically on the user.

The device, which has no set release date, will work with all Xbox 360 consoles.

“Surely we’ve been making interactive games for 20 years right? 30 years? No I don’t think we have,” said Peter Molyneux of Microsoft’s Lionhead Studios. Molyneux called the hand-held video game controller “the biggest barrier,” to what developers want to create in the world of interactive entertainment.

In a demonstration of the technology, Microsoft programmed an artificial intelligence of a young British boy and played a video of the boy interacting with an employee. The boy immediately recognized her voice and face and responded to her tone of voice. For instance, when the woman player firmly asked the boy if he had finished his homework, the boy looked down, away from the camera, and looked embarrassed.

In another impressive feature, the woman drew a picture of a fish and “handed it” to the boy by gesturing it toward the camera. The boy responded by virtually “picking up” a piece of paper. An identical virtual representation of the drawing appears on screen and the boy recognizes the colors and shapes.

The unveil was the biggest announcement at Microsoft’s two-hour conference, which included announcements about several new games including, for the first game, a title in the Metal Gear Solid franchise — previously a Sony Playstation exclusive — coming to the Xbox 360. The title, Metal Gear Rising, has no announced released date.

Source: http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/2009/06/e3-2009-project-natal/

E3-2009: Xbox offers on-demand video games

Friendly Computers just found out that Xbox 360 plans to release 30 big name games to be available for download. Although the games are not new titles, downloadable games seems to be the direction the market is heading. Read on to find out more…

Microsoft ran out of time during its press conference yesterday and instead saved news about its on-demand download service for Xbox 360 games for a luncheon following the press event.

But the news is pretty significant because it further charts a course for the industry toward downloadable AAA games for the next gen consoles. We've had downloadable games for the PC for five year or more, but the console download business has been largely light arcade games, smaller titles or expansion packs and other extra goodies. PlayStation Network also has downloadable games but they are of an older variety or some games specifically built for the PSN.

But Microsoft announced Monday that come August, they would start selling about 30 big name games at retail value for download on the Xbox 360. These are somewhat older titles, at least a year out of date but they are top notch games including: Assassin's Creed, BioShock, Call of Duty 2, Crackdown, Mass Effect, and Oblivion. Pricing will be consistent with retail prices but you will be able to pay for them using a credit card instead of Microsoft Points.

I talked with Microsoft execs last night and they said they weren't motivated by the desire to reclaim lost used game sales revenue. In fact a good number of the games they're selling will have generally left game shelves a long time ago. But they want to be able to offer games even if they've lost their place on game shelves in traditional retail stores.

Still, retail outlets should be concerned. While these aren't downloadable games available on day 1, they represent a shifting tide toward full downloadable content. First, it's older games more than a year old. Then, we'll probably see games only 6 months old. Eventually, it would have to be games available on day 1, as many are for the PC. And then goes a lot of that of that used game sales revenue.

In talking with GameStop, they know this is coming and while they insist retail is going to be around for a long time, they too are planning for a digital future. The economy might be accelerating the process but this is where we're going. We'll see if GameStop can keep up.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_id=40996&tsp=1

Price cuts and video games

Friendly Computers found out that Microsoft announced that it will be lowering the cost of their entire Xbox line. Why are other game manufactures not following suite? Read on:

 

In an announcement that was confirmed earlier this week, Microsoft has officially announced that its Xbox 360 console price will drop across the entire line. For those who are keeping score, the Elite version will go for $449.99, the Halo version for $399.99, the premium version for $349.99 and the core version for $279.99. And while I applaud Microsoft for making some headway in reducing prices, why can't the same be said for the entire video game industry? Why are prices so high? Forget movie theater tickets, the real robbery is found on video game shelves at Gamestop and Best Buy.

If you haven't already noticed, the video game industry is taking us for everything we own. Why should I pay $60 for a new version of Madden when it's the same game with a few enhancements here and there? Let's be honest with ourselves: $60 video game pricing is one of the biggest robberies in technology.

I understand the argument that as video game development costs rise, prices must rise as well, but I have a feeling development costs are just a slight consideration when companies decide on pricing. That's not to say that I have an issue with paying $60 for a video game, but what I'm saying is some games have no business being $60.

The video game industry needs to move towards a graduated pricing scale that is realistic about the prospects of sales.

The first step in deciding pricing is (of course) evaluating the total cost associated with a title. I can't imagine a game like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion will cost less than a game like Madden because, after all, an epic title should always cost more than a game that is basically an update of the prior year.

Once the total cost is budgeted, common sense needs to play a role. If your game is a low-budget title with a derivative storyline and spotty gameplay, why in the world would you charge $60 for it? It'll be killed by the review teams people will stay away from it like the plague. But if it was priced at the lowest feasible price, don't you think sales would increase?

Granted, there are a few games on the market that do retail for a lower price than the norm, but each title is becoming more sparse by the minute. I remember the days of $39.99 Playstation games sitting alongside $59.99 Nintendo 64 games. And while the pricing difference was always attributed to the cost of the Nintendo 64 cartridges, did anyone believe for a second that the price couldn't have been lowered by $10?

And while I disagree with the pricing structure in the industry, there's no stopping it. People buy games for $60 and if a Limited Edition comes around the corner, they'll buy it for even more.

But unfortunately the price gouging doesn't stop at video games themselves. Companies are now charging $10 for armor and ludicrous sums of money for maps that will enhance your experience for about an hour at best. And just because companies lay on the claim that these sales are for the developers who worked so hard to make the game, it doesn't mean those developers are necessarily seeing any of the money from that $10 sale.

I'm a firm believer in giving developers credit where it's due. Video games are great today because they are made by men and women who spend hours and nights in a dark room trying to get that last bug out of the second mission. Video games are great today because those men and women who are outside of the corporate hierarchy feed a passion into each game they develop. The solution to price gouging in the video game industry is not to ignore higher priced games or purchase used games so you can get them at a discount. The true solution to video game price gouging in recognition of the developers.

I would be more than happy to pay $60 for a video game if I knew that the people who took the time to make the game were being the credit they deserved. How many games are released each month under the moniker of a EA or Microsoft or Nintendo while the people who actually created the game remain anonymous?

The time has come for the video game industry to change the way it does business. Video games are not created by a company, they are created by passionate men and women who get very little for their troubles and that's a damn shame.

The future of the video game industry should reflect recognition and respect for developers. Each game should give credit like a movie gives credit to its director. I'm tired of price gouging and anonymity -- those days are over.

Those days should have been over years ago.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-9756165-17.html?tag=mncol