Your Brain on Telepresence

More reading material has been e-mailed to you guys.

One reading is a study done on how viewing moving objects effects our EEG patterns with a focus on how viewing our own body parts has a different effect than just watching a moving object. (No, not the parts that would make this reading really interesting! Mainly just hands.)

The other reading is about the design of telepresence input devices. This one examines how the device or handle we navigate virtual space with and the use of one or both hands effects our spatial problem solving.

Desney Tan's research on human-computer interface and brain-computer interface is not required for this class as it is vast and worthy of several class discussions, however it is definitely worth exploring. http://research.microsoft.com/~desney/

I am very interested in discussing the essence of games both from a theoretical perspective, but also from an interface perspective. What engages the mind emotionally as well as intellectually, and what sensory navigation tools could be tapped into to augment the human-computer dialogue/exchange during play? Why are we still locked into mice and joysticks when we use so many senses to navigate our world? Even the Wii, while a step in the right direction is viewed by many hard core gamers as an inadequate tool for compelling game play in terms of its marginal rotational sensitivity. I would argue some of it is cost, but much of it is our minds trapped in the existing rut of what is familiar.

Chris Crawfords reading assigned in my last blog really opens up some good food for thought in terms of the true power interactive games hold once a proper design foundation is constructed. The web of possibility generated through a tightly integrated game context hold a great deal of power in unlocking our mind's ability to analyze a idea through multiple experimental paths as opposed to a singular story based path.