Game Controllers Level Up With Thumb-Tractors
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Oct 11, 2024
Oct 11, 2024
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Engineers at the University of Utah are designing a new take on Video Game Controllers which aims to take the video game experience a step ahead. Currently, the video game controllers feature vibration-feedback to assist stimulation while playing games. The engineers aim to present a new design which adds Haptic solely focusing on the thumb. This would include pulling and stretching the thumb tips in different directions to simulate the tug of a fishing line, the recoil of a gun or the feeling of ocean waves. The device will be presented during the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Haptics Symposium by Provancher and his teammates.
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The first haptics device originated way back in 1997 with the Nintendo64 which functioned by using vibration as a technique to emulate the experience of driving a car on a rough road, getting hit by a wall or flying a jet. This new device takes it a step further by making the thumb stretched or pulled in different directions by the joysticks. The thumb joysticks are fitted with a round, red “tactor†which roughly resembles the eraser-head-shaped IBM TrackPoint. This tractor moves under the thumb to replicate a game's scene by pulling and stretching the skin in different directions.
The new controller prototype looks like the Microsoft Xbox controller or Playstation DualShock Controller but with an addition of thumb joysticks designed to imitate impact. Provancher also plans to include smartphone compatibility with this new device in the form of  game-controlling thumb sticks which would fit on either sides of the phone.
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The first haptics device originated way back in 1997 with the Nintendo64 which functioned by using vibration as a technique to emulate the experience of driving a car on a rough road, getting hit by a wall or flying a jet. This new device takes it a step further by making the thumb stretched or pulled in different directions by the joysticks. The thumb joysticks are fitted with a round, red “tactor†which roughly resembles the eraser-head-shaped IBM TrackPoint. This tractor moves under the thumb to replicate a game's scene by pulling and stretching the skin in different directions.
The new controller prototype looks like the Microsoft Xbox controller or Playstation DualShock Controller but with an addition of thumb joysticks designed to imitate impact. Provancher also plans to include smartphone compatibility with this new device in the form of  game-controlling thumb sticks which would fit on either sides of the phone.
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