Abstract
Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) are a novel kind of user interface that allows the recognition of specific user intentions by reading the user’s brain activity, translating it into commands and transmitting them to the computer. With increasing advances in the technology behind these interfaces, gaming applications using cerebral input are becoming more common, although the employment of this kind of control for games is still relatively low in comparison to other traditional input modalities. This paper presents Mental War, a brain-controlled multiplayer computer game, in which two or more players are able to compete against each other, or work together in a collaborative mode to achieve a common goal, both using only their mental state alone. Their level of concentration is measured using a single-sensor BCI headset and translated into force to pull a rope in a tug-of-war game. The design and implementation process of the game are detailed and discussed. An evaluation process was performed with a total of 24 participants to acquire qualitative data regarding the interaction with the BCI platform, validating the design and providing insights for developers in future BCI-based research.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bento, A.A., de Miranda, L.C.: Steering all: infinite racing game controlled by haar cascade through OpenCV. In: SVR 2015, pp. 245–254. IEEE (2015)
Bingham, P.M., Bates, J.H.T., Thompson-Figueroa, J., Lahiri, T.: A breath biofeedback computer game for children with cystic fibrosis. Clin. Pediatr. 49(4), 337–342 (2010)
Bonnet, L., Lotte, F., Lécuyer, A.: Two brains, one game: design and evaluation of a multiuser BCI video game based on motor imagery. IEEE Trans. Comput. Intell. AI Games 5(2), 185–198 (2013)
Crawford, C.S., Andujar, M., Jackson, F., Remy, S., Gilbert, J.E.: User experience evaluation towards cooperative brain-robot interaction. In: Kurosu, M. (ed.) HCI 2015. LNCS, vol. 9169, pp. 184–193. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20901-2_17
DelPozo-Banos, M., Travieso, C.M., Weidemann, C.T., Alonso, J.B.: EEG biometric identification: a thorough exploration of the time-frequency domain. J. Neural Eng. 12(5), 056019 (2015)
Eid, M., Issawi, A.E., Saddik, A.E.: Slingshot 3D: a synchronous haptic-audio-video game. Multimedia Tools Appl. 71(3), 1635–1649 (2014)
Ferreira, A.L.S., Marciano, J.N., de Miranda, L.C., Miranda, E.E.C.: Understanding and pro-posing a design rationale of digital games based on brain-computer interface: results of the AdmiralMind battleship study. SBC J. Interact. Syst. 5(1), 3–15 (2014)
Ferreira, A.L.S., de Miranda, L.C., Miranda, E.E.C., Sakamoto, S.G.: A survey of interactive systems based on brain-computer interfaces. SBC J. 3D Interact. Syst. 4(1), 3–13 (2013)
Gervasi, O., Magni, R., Macellari, S.: A brain computer interface for enhancing the communication of people with severe impairment. In: Murgante, B., et al. (eds.) ICCSA 2014. LNCS, vol. 8584, pp. 709–721. Springer, Cham (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09153-2_53
Hazrati, M.K., Hofmann, U.G.: Avatar navigation in second life using brain signals. In: WISP 2013, pp. 1–7. IEEE (2013)
Kos’myna, N., Tarpin-Bernard, F.: Evaluation and comparison of a multimodal combination of BCI paradigms and eye tracking with affordable consumer-grade hardware in a gaming context. IEEE Trans. Comput. Intell. AI Games 5(2), 150–154 (2013)
Laar, B., Gürkök, H., Bos, D.P.O., Poel, M., Nijholt, A.: Experiencing BCI control in a popular computer game. IEEE Trans. Comput. Intell. AI Games 5(2), 176–184 (2013)
Liarokapis, F., Vourvopoulos, A., Ene, A.: Examining user experiences through a multimodal BCI puzzle game. In: iV 2015, pp. 488–493. IEEE (2015)
Maby, E., Perrin, M., Bertrand, O., Sanchez, G., Mattout, J.: BCI could make old two-player games even more fun: a proof of concept with “connect four”. In: Advances in Human-Computer Interaction 2012, pp. 1–8 (2012)
Marshall, D., Coyle, D., Wilson, S., Callaghan, M.: Games, gameplay, and BCI: the state of the art. IEEE Trans. Comput. Intell. AI Games 5(2), 82–99 (2013)
de Miranda, L.C., Hornung, H.H., Baranauskas, M.C.C.: Adjustable interactive rings for iDTV. IEEE Trans. Consum. Electron. 56(3), 1988–1996 (2010)
de Miranda, L.C., Hornung, H., Pereira, R., Baranauskas, M.C.C.: Exploring adjustable interactive rings in game playing: preliminary results. In: Marcus, A. (ed.) DUXU 2013. LNCS, vol. 8013, pp. 518–527. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39241-2_57
Schwarz, D., Subramanian, V., Zhuang, K., Adamczyk, C.: Educational neurogaming: EEG-controlled videogames as interactive teaching tools for introductory neuroscience. In: AIIDE 2014, pp. 49–52. AIII (2014)
Vasiljevic, G.A.M., de Miranda, L.C., Miranda, E.E.C.: A case study of MasterMind chess: comparing mouse/keyboard interaction with kinect-based gestural interface. In: Advances in Human-Computer Interaction 2016, 10 p. (2016)
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Physical Artifacts of Interaction Research Group (PAIRG) at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), and partially funded by the Brazilian National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), under grants 130158/2015-1 and 146931/2017-3. We also would like to thank by resources of the PAIRG’s Laboratory of Physical and Physiological Computing (PAIRG L2PC) at UFRN, and the subjects who volunteered to participate in the evaluation of the Mental War.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this paper
Cite this paper
Vasiljevic, G.A.M., de Miranda, L.C., de Menezes, B.C. (2018). Mental War: An Attention-Based Single/Multiplayer Brain-Computer Interface Game. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2018. ICCSA 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10960. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95162-1_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95162-1_31
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95161-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95162-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)