The gaming world is constantly evolving, especially when it comes to hardware. A recent innovation is a controller that is controlled with the tongue in the mouth. What sounds curious at first has a serious yet practical background.
What kind of controller is this? The [In]Brace is an appliance for the oral cavity that allows technical devices to be controlled with the help of the tongue. A mouthpiece is used, and a transmitter is clipped behind the ear:
- Hidden in the mouthpiece is a magnetic element that can be moved back and forth with the tongue.
- The transmitter behind the ear is used to establish a connection to the device being controlled and to hold the battery, which should not be located in the oral cavity.
A special feature of the controller is that the mouthpiece can be custom-made for each user.
Where does the controller come from? The controller was developed by Dorothee Clasen, a freelance interaction and material designer, as part of a master’s thesis for TH Cologne.
She herself presented the controller in a video and even created her own version of PONG, named TONG, which can be controlled with the [IN]Brace.
Controller as an opportunity for gamers with disabilities
Why is the controller so interesting? While the design may only appeal to a few players visually, the controller has some interesting application possibilities:
- One possibility is physiotherapy, where the focus can be on retraining the tongue.
- Another lies in particularly complex tasks where hands are needed, yet an interface still has to be operated.
- The third target group is gamers with disabilities who have to do without one or possibly both hands.
From the last group, we have already met some gamers on MeinMMO who, despite their limitations, have lived out their adventures in video games.
These players game with special controllers: The player Rocky has been in a wheelchair for over 13 years and is completely paralyzed, unable to move either arms or legs. Still, he played and won PUBG in 2017 with a mouth controller that operates somewhat differently than the model presented here.
In FIFA 20, the Twitch streamer Diogo Pé is well known. He has no hands or arms and therefore plays with his feet. With that, he even made it to Gold 1.
The player Nathan, on the other hand, has to endure even more limitations. After a car accident, he is almost completely paralyzed. He now plays Final Fantasy XIV only with his brain and uses microelectrodes that transmit commands from specific areas of the brain.
These and many other individuals demonstrate that gaming is possible even with a handicap. The new controller could help some players take steps into the virtual world as well.
Not as useful, but also curious is the new pixel sneaker developed by Nike specifically for gamers.
