No buttons necessary: the future of gaming is eye tracking
It’s amazing how popular video game consoles started with a simple joystick and a button. Now we have game controllers with two joysticks, eight buttons, and a “joy pad”. Games have come a long way, and as they grow more complicated and interactive, the immersive experience requires more control.
The next phase of gaming is to simplify controls, making them more intuitive and easing the learning curve, so that the games are accessible to a wider audience. The race to simple video game control started with Sony selling a camera peripheral for their PS2 game consoles. With specialized game software, the camera allowed users to control the games with their body motion alone. Then came Nintendo’s Wii, which revolutionized gaming control by tracking motion through the use of embedded accelerometers within the controller.
The next stage in gaming control will not just be tracking the motion of head and body, but also the motion of smaller appendages – fingers and eyes, for example. Imagine a time when you’ll no longer need a physical controller. Any body part that can be measured by motion, blood pressure, heart pulse, and these functions can be used to create an entirely new level of game interactivity without complicating significantly the learning curve of the game.
For example, with games that can track eye movement, one can locate and target an enemy or foe on screen. Once an object has been focused on, the game can provide supplementary detail such as the distance to the object, health levels, or defense levels. All of this happens without the player having to press a single button.
We’re well on the way to a gaming world where there might be no need for a game controller whatsoever: the human body is the game controller, no buttons necessary.
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